Blue Origin’s CEO: “We still think we have a path to launch this year.”
At a recent space panel event run by Blue Origin at its Florida facility, the company’s CEO David Limp reiterated his earlier comments that the company is focused on launching New Glenn again before the end of the year, following the May 28, 2026 launchpad explosion.
“We still think we have a path to launch this year,” he said. Blue Origin’s New Glenn explosion during a prelaunch engine test generated a huge fireball and widespread damages at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Investigators blamed an anomaly at the main oxygen valve on one of the rocket’s BE-4 engines.
His comments provided no new information on the status of the rocket, but it continues to appear the company is pushing hard to meet his proposed schedule.
If so, Blue Origin might finally be functioning like a real competitive company. The May 28th explosion not only destroyed a rocket, it destroyed the company’s only New Glenn launchpad. The general opinion then (not held by me) was that this company wouldn’t fly again for more than a year, based on its past track record (before Limp took over) of slow or even non-achievement.
A truly serious private company would push to get back in flight as fast as possible, and at the time I thought a realistic target date was the end of the year. I also thought Limp would push for such a target date, and he did. On top of this, he has also started construction on a new payload processing facility in Florida, begun work on a second launchpad in Florida as it repairs the first, and accelerated work on the larger 9×4 version of New Glenn. Even if he misses his launch date by a month or so, he will have achieved his real goal, of getting Blue Origin off its duff.
And if he does, he will finally make Blue Origin a true competitor to SpaceX.
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I remain highly skeptical that BO can do this before’ year’s end.
Honestly, just achieving a launch before spring would be an impressive feat.
That said, I share the sense that there’s more push, more drive, more energy on Blue Origin’s part than we used to see. Combine these developments with the recent capital raise, and the Blue Origin application to the FAA to increase permitted launches and booster landings of its New Glenn rocket from 12 to 50 at the Cape annually (see my post in the last Quick Links), and it really does seem like Limp is trying to make Blue Origin a serious launch company.
Now if only they wanted to fly more than a hundred times per year.
As I have asserted before, while a sense of urgency is admirable, Blue needs to be careful that haste does not plant the seeds of further accidents!
Furthermore, SpaceX is aiming for a whole new business model, one that will involve multiple flights every day of rockets much larger than New Glenn!
Even if BO launches late Winter, David Limp should take home all the awards hardware. Unsavory reputations are difficult to change; but Limp is walking the walk.