New Glenn
Overview
Heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle with a reusable first stage, designed for commercial, civil, and national security missions.
NG-1 reached orbit on January 16, 2025. NG-2 launched NASA's ESCAPADE spacecraft on November 13, 2025 and landed the booster on Jacklyn. NG-3 (April 19, 2026) reused and re-landed that booster but suffered an upper-stage BE-3U thrust shortfall - traced to a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line - that left BlueBird 7 short of orbit; the FAA closed its investigation and lifted the grounding on May 22, 2026. A New Glenn was destroyed in a May 28, 2026 hotfire explosion at LC-36, damaging the transporter-erector at Blue Origin's only New Glenn pad; Blue Origin root-caused the explosion on August 5, 2026 to a BE-4 main oxygen valve fault and is retrofitting modified valve hardware (targeted end of August 2026) while pursuing an alternative vertical assembly path to return to flight before year-end. Reverified in late August 2026: NG-4 still had not flown and no LC-36A completion date had been announced beyond the year-end 2026 target.