Blue Origin wants to launch New Glenn rocket by end of 2026. Can it?

• Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded on a Florida launch pad in late May during a pre-launch test.
• The company aims to launch the heavy-lift rocket again before the end of 2026.
• The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but early data points to an issue in the first stage.
• Rebuilding efforts are underway at Cape Canaveral, including upgrades to the launch pad.
• The New Glenn rocket is crucial for Blue Origin's ambitions and NASA's Artemis moon missions.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin wants to launch its towering New Glenn rocket before the end of 2026 – and it has a plan to do it.

As you may remember, the massive heavy-lift launch vehicle was due to get off the ground on what would have been its fourth-ever flight when it exploded at the end of May in a dramatic fireball, sending shockwaves across Florida. In the weeks since, teams have been clearing the Cape Canaveral launch site of debris and beginning the arduous process of rebuilding.

Plenty of work remains ahead, but Blue Origin leaders have publicly expressed optimism that a rocket crucial to not just the spaceflight company's ambitions, but also NASA's, will fly again before the year is out.

More than a month after the devastating explosion, here's a look at Blue Origin's roadmap to launching the New Glenn rocket again in 2026.

Blue Origin wants to launch New Glenn by end of 2026

Blue Origin officials have insisted the company will be ready to launch its New Glenn rocket once again before the end of 2026 from Launch Complex 36 – a site it leases at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Standing at 322 feet tall, the New Glenn rocket is a heavy-lift launch vehicle designed to transport a variety of commercial and civil payloads – such assatellites – to orbit.

"We take our responsibility as a launch provider very seriously, and we are committed to returning to flight with the reliability our mission demands," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a June 30 statement.

New Glenn explodes on launch pad in Florida

The news comes about a month after the New Glenn rocket exploded in Florida, dealing severe damage to the surrounding infrastructure in Cape Canaveral.

Ground teams were performing an important prelaunch test known as a hot fire in preparation for what would have been New Glenn's fourth flight when the explosion occurred May 28, resulting in a fireball widely seen around Florida.

No one was injured, but the explosion completely destroyed the fully stacked rocket, composed of both a first-stage booster that provides the initial burst of thrust at liftoff, as well as a second-stage vehicle designed to fly in orbit.

What caused the Blue Origin explosion?

Blue Origin officials have not yet determined what caused the New Glenn rocket to explode, Limp said in the late-June update.

Early data, however, suggests the trouble originated in the aft section of the first stage, Limp said. 

"We continue to actively investigate the cause of the anomaly," Limp said in a statement. "The vehicle is highly instrumented with extensive data from multiple camera angles and sensors, giving us confidence in our ability to identify and correct the root cause."

Rebuilding underway at Cape Canaveral launch pad after rocket explosion

In the meantime, Blue Origin is working toward its goal of a late-2026 New Glenn launch by continuing to rebuild in Cape Canaveral.

But the plan is not to simply replicate what was already in place before the explosion, the company said.

Instead, the reconstructed launch pad will be capable of supporting horizontal rocket stage integration operations as Blue Origin prepares to introduce an even bigger and more powerful version of the New Glenn rocket.

As demonstrated in a computer-rendered video, that means New Glenn's stages will be able to be stacked while the vehicle is horizontal in the company's nearby integration facility, and then transported to the launch pad where a crane can raise it to a vertical position. After that, a payload would be integrated atop a vertical New Glenn, according to Blue Origin.

Blue Origin continues development of lunar landers for NASA

Blue Origin also continues to develop and test its Blue Moon lunar lander that is due to be a crucial part of NASA's drive to return humans to the moon under its Artemis program.

NASA is relying on the New Glenn rocket for missions under its Artemis campaign, which seeks to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 and construct a lunar outpost to enable a longterm presence.

By the end of 2026, the Mark 1 variant of the Blue Moon lander, which differs from the Mark 2 variant in that it's not designed for humans, could carry NASA equipment while targeting a landing in the lunar south pole region.

It's unclear if New Glenn will still be used as the launch vehicle to get the lunar lander to space. However, the rocket is on track to be a crucial part of the Artemis III mission in 2027, NASA and Blue Origin officials have indicated.

That mission entails NASA launching a crew of astronauts to Earth orbit, where they are due to dock with and test not just Blue Origin's lunar lander, but SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected].