Kent-based Blue Origin expects to fly again before end of year
Published 4:00 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Despite the explosion of Kent-based Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket during a launch test in Florida, company leaders expect to “fly again before the end of this year.”
The rocket blew up, nobody was on board, on May 28 at the company’s Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida. It was a test firing and not a launch, which was going to happen this month.
“Now that we’ve had access to the pad and integration facility we can share a bit of good news,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp posted June 1 on X. “The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG (liquefied natural gas) tanks are all in good shape. This is good luck because these are very long lead items. The water tower is also good. The big support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced.”
Limp also said the booster “Never Tell Me The Odds” and the hydrogen-powered upper stages of the rocket designed to propel payloads into space that were onsite in the integration facility also look good.
The company will continue to launch the 7×2 smaller variant of the rocket rather than a larger 9×4 configuration under development, Limp said.
“We will fly again before the end of this year,” he said.
Blue Origin has not yet released what caused the explosion.
NASA visits site
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and several of his senior engineers visited the launch site in Florida to assess the damage. He also spoke along with Limp and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos to company employees.
”There is a lot of work to do, but this is exactly why people choose careers in aerospace, whether at NASA, Blue Origin, or across the industry,” Isaacman posted on X. “The talent in this field thrives under pressure and performs at its best when solving the toughest problems.
“We have been saying for months at NASA that we are not going to sit on our hands and wait for the capabilities necessary to achieve the nation’s most pressing objectives. We are going to take an active role alongside our partners, just as we did in the 1960s, to overcome setbacks, remove obstacles, and deliver the intended outcomes.”
Isaacman said NASA is committed to helping the Blue team recover, continue to advance their lunar lander and get New Glenn back to launching as soon as safely possible.
NASA awarded Blue Origin last month an initial $188 million contract, according to payloadspace.com, for two missions to deliver lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs) to the moon’s South Pole by 2028.
