Blue Origin pushes New Glenn's return to January 2027, Blue Moon lander waits

Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said on November 5 that New Glenn will not return to flight by the end of 2026 but in January 2027, The Next Web reports. He blamed summer weather for slowing the roughly six-month rebuild of the LC-36 launch pad. "Returning New Glenn to flight remains our top priority," Limp said.

The rocket suffered two serious setbacks this year: on the NG-3 flight on April 19, AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite was left in an unusable orbit, although the reused booster landed, and on May 28 a rocket exploded during a static-fire test, badly damaging the only New Glenn pad.

Lunar plans

The next flight will carry 48 Amazon Leo satellites. The Blue Moon MK1 "Endurance" lander, due to land near the lunar south pole, is targeted for no earlier than the first quarter of 2027, and the new delay could push that back too. A test version of Blue Moon is also part of Artemis III.