Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin aims to repair the damage caused last week by a rocket launch pad explosion and return to flight before the end of the year, the company’s CEO said.
In a post to X, CEO Dave Limp made a plan that was more optimistic than expected immediately after the fire destroyed the New Glenn rocket last Thursday during a static fire test. CNBC quoted NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman as saying that “it will take a significant amount of time” to return Launch Complex 36 to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
In his post, Limp said he had some “good news” to share after inspecting the facility’s pad and assembly center.
“The production farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are in good condition. This is fortunate because these are very long lead items,” he said. “The water tower is also good, the main support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in its place instead of being demolished and replaced. [upper stages] the ones that were in the assembly line also look good.”
Limp said the pad will be redesigned to fit the current 7×2 New Glenn configuration, which offers a 7-meter-wide fairing powered by two BE-3U rocket engines, rather than switching to the next-generation 9-meter fairing.
“Production of the 7×2 standard is going well, and we will continue with that at the planned pace and reserve the stages for use,” he explained. “In addition, we have already been working for a long time to finish our transporter-erector in order to get another direct conop. [concept of operations]and now we will go directly to that; therefore we do not need a new transporter-erector.”
If New Glenn returns to flight this year, that would be good news for NASA and other Blue Origin customers. NASA had scheduled the New Glenn lander and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 to deliver a set of payloads to the moon this fall, and send the space station’s VIPER rover to the southern region of the moon in 2027.
A crew-capable version of Blue Moon was scheduled to have its first flight test in low Earth orbit early next year during NASA’s Artemis 3 mission. And just this month, NASA awarded Blue Origin a $468 million contract to deliver two lunar terrain vehicles, or LTVs, to the moon by 2028. All of those possibilities depend on having New Glenn and its launch pad back in operation.
The New Glenn also features in the plans of another Bezos-founded company: Amazon. Blue Origin, a private business separate from publicly traded Amazon, was due to launch 48 satellites for the Amazon Leo broadband internet constellation earlier this week. The rocket that exploded – named “No, It’s Necessary” – was being tested in preparation for that mission.
Rajeev Badyal, Amazon Leo’s vice president, told his team in an internal memo obtained by Business Insider that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the explosion or its possible consequences.
“I’ve been in this business for a long time and it’s fair to say: Spaceflight is hard, and there are going to be setbacks,” he wrote in the memo.
Amazon has retained a number of launches with other suppliers, including United Launch Alliance, Arianespace and SpaceX – and satellites destined for aboard New Glenn could be transferred to those other companies’ rockets. United Launch Alliance launched 29 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit with the launch of Atlas 5 last Friday, bringing the number of satellites to 331.
“The New Glenn is just one car on our list,” Badyal wrote. “Our mission has not changed, our commitment to our customers and to delivering services has not changed.”
For an interactive view of Blue Origin’s Launch Complex 36 before and after the New Glenn explosion, check out this Planet Labs photo presentation on SpaceFromSpace.com, and be sure to use the “Transparency” slide to compare the before and after view.
