Blue Origin pushes New Glenn’s Cape return past year-end to January 2027

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will not fly again in 2026. CEO Dave Limp told employees in a memo Wednesday that the rocket’s return to flight has slipped to January 2027, later than the company’s earlier target of the end of this year, CNBC reported. CNBC said it viewed the memo; the Financial Times reported it first. 321 Daily has not seen the memo.

The delay matters on the Space Coast because Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is New Glenn’s pad, and a hot-fire test explosion there in May badly damaged it.

What Limp told staff

Limp wrote that the timing slipped because of delays reconstructing the Cape Canaveral pad, including bad weather over the summer, according to CNBC. “This small adjustment doesn’t diminish what we’ve accomplished or the importance of the work still ahead,” he wrote. “Returning New Glenn to flight remains our top priority — it’s worth it.”

“Your collective work on our return to flight has been nothing short of remarkable,” Limp wrote. “In just six months, Team Blue has accomplished what many thought would take years.” A person familiar with the matter told CNBC the January time frame is about 10 days later than Blue Origin’s earlier target.

The memo says the pad’s Vehicle Access Tower has been repaired and restacked and the launch bridge has been restored, and Limp blamed weather for repairs moving slower than hoped, Engadget reported.

In late October, Limp posted a time-lapse of the pad’s Vehicle Access Tower being reassembled: “The Vehicle Access Tower is fully assembled, with every module repaired and back in place,” he wrote on X, FOX 35 reported. Blue Origin had said then that it wanted to return to flight before the end of 2026, and Jeff Bezos told Fox News last month the company still expected New Glenn to fly in December, CNBC reported.

The May explosion

The explosion happened May 28 during a static-fire test at Launch Complex 36. No one was hurt. Blue Origin had been slated to launch 48 satellites for Amazon’s Leo internet service a few days later, CNBC reported. In August, Limp said on X that the anomaly “originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines, which was later confirmed by hardware recovery and inspections,” and that the company was making small modifications to the valve that could be retrofitted to existing engines.

Meanwhile at the Cape

Amazon has turned to other providers, including United Launch Alliance and Arianespace, while New Glenn is down, CNBC reported. ULA’s mission page targets Friday, Nov. 13, at 12:54 p.m. EST for Vulcan Leo 1, a Vulcan VC6L launch of 40 Amazon Leo satellites from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the first of 38 Vulcan launches for Amazon.

What is waiting on New Glenn

Beyond Amazon, NASA has tapped Blue Origin for several Artemis contracts, including a lunar lander, CNBC noted. In September, NASA selected Blue Origin for its Mars Telecommunications Network: a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum potential value of about $700 million to deliver a Mars telecommunications orbiter by Dec. 31, 2028, with the network expected to operate at Mars by 2030.

Blue Origin has not announced an exact January date or the next New Glenn mission. 321 Daily did not contact the company for this story.