New Glenn Recovery: Blue Origin’s Plan for Weekly Launches

Blue Origin is rebuilding its New Glenn launch pad after a May 28 explosion, while planning infrastructure it says will support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade. In an October 16 update, Ian Richardson, vice president of operations, said new launch pads would come to Florida's Space Coast to add to the two at Launch Complex 36: 36A in build-back mode and 36B in development.

The May explosion and rebuild

The explosion happened during a planned pre-launch static fire engine test. The company said an issue within the main oxygen valve on one of the rocket's seven BE-4 engines cascaded into a detonation that took out the launcher and damaged pad infrastructure. Pad build-back has continued over the summer.

On October 16, CEO Dave Limp shared an image of the seventh tower module being re-stacked, two days after the stacking of module 6. Two more modules remain before the vehicle access tower returns to full height. Limp said more than a thousand people are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that a large steel structure is being built to attach to the tower for the next-generation concept of operations for the 7×2 launch system. Blue Origin remains committed to launching New Glenn from 36A by the end of the year.

The first payload will be Blue Ring, a vehicle Blue Origin manufactures to move multiple payloads into different orbits around Earth, to lunar vicinity and even to Mars. Tory Bruno, president of Blue Origin's National Security division, has been sharing progress photos, including a deployment demonstration of a roll-out solar array from Redwire Space and a robotic arm in a thermal vacuum chamber.

Infrastructure for higher cadence

Jeff Bezos said on Fox News on October 7 that four pads would be under construction in total, and that the goal is to fly every day.

• Two additional landing barges, similar to Jacklyn, will catch and ferry back first stage boosters, as demonstrated on the NG-2 and NG-3 missions.
• A $330 million expansion of Rocket Park covers a 1.37 million square foot site that will house the production line for the 9×4 version of New Glenn. Limp said it will produce up to 150 upper stages annually, with completion aimed for summer 2027.
• A 120,000 square foot payload processing facility, built with the U.S. Space Force, is due by early 2028, with four payload processing bays, two encapsulation bays and a multi-manifest processing area. It can integrate payloads up to the size of the next-generation 8.7 meter fairing.
• A new vertical integration facility, 86,000 square feet and 310 feet tall, will host integration for 9×4 and refurbishment of initial 9×4 boosters.

Regulatory step

On September 29 the FAA published a draft environmental assessment on raising permitted launches at 36A from 12 to 50 annually. It would also allow up to 50 static fire tests of integrated stages and up to 50 of the second stage alone, though Blue Origin does not anticipate a static fire before each launch. The draft notes Blue Origin is pursuing reusable payload fairings; no new timeline for a parachute demonstration has been announced. A virtual public hearing is scheduled for October 22, 6-8 pm Eastern, and public comment is open until October 30.