NASA chief praises progress Blue Origin is making after launch failure

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said this week that Blue Origin has been putting significant resources into the cleanup of its launch pad since the explosion of its New Glenn rocket there in late May.

“Blue Origin’s response to the situation is almost beyond impressive, and that’s not just a NASA assessment,” Isaacman said in response to questions from reporters on Wednesday afternoon. He noted that officials from the US Space Force have also been deeply involved in Blue Origin’s planning and work since an anomaly during a test firing took out New Glenn’s only operational launch pad on May 28.

NASA has a significant stake in Blue Origin’s return to flight. It is counting on the company’s Mk. 1 lander to carry dozens of cargo missions to the Moon, and its Mk. 2 lander to eventually ferry people to the lunar surface. The company’s New Glenn rocket was expected to play a critical role in launching both of those landers.

Plan A is to launch on New Glenn

Before the accident, Blue Origin had been hoping to launch its first Mk. 1 mission, named Endurance, later this year for a cargo landing on the Moon. Additionally, the company is developing a test version of the Mk. 2 lander for launch as part of the Artemis III mission, which NASA hopes to fly during the second half of next year.

Blue Origin officials, including chief executive Dave Limp, have said the company is working toward rebuilding Launch Complex 36A, completing the anomaly investigation, and launching New Glenn on a return-to-flight mission before the end of this year. Privately, some NASA officials have expressed skepticism about this timeline. Most independent observers have suggested that a 12- to 18-month timeline is probably the most realistic for New Glenn’s return to flight.

Isaacman stressed this week that NASA’s preferred option is for the Endurance mission, which will carry two NASA science and technology payloads to the lunar surface, to launch on New Glenn.

“They’re making great progress,” Isaacman said of Blue Origin. “So plan A is very much still to launch the Mk. 1 on New Glenn. They are very committed to getting back in the business of launching New Glenn before the end of the year. And Plan A is looking a lot better today than it was weeks ago, just based on the progress that the Blue Origin team is making.”

NASA considering its options

However, he added that prudence demands that NASA should also study alternative launch vehicles for the Endurance mission as well as Blue Origin’s lander for Artemis III. Options include SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy or United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rockets.

So NASA is closely watching Blue’s recovery. Isaacman said he receives daily updates from his team.

“We’ve got time into 2027 before we’re getting nervous,” Isaacman said. “If we start tracking towards mid-2027, that has implications for the Artemis III mission, and for uncrewed landers, and that would be more concerning.”

Cranes enter the picture

Also on Wednesday, Limp provided additional information about the company’s plans to return to flight.

“We continue to actively investigate the cause of the anomaly,” he wrote. “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. Early analysis points to the aft section of the first stage.”

During the test anomaly, Blue Origin lost the lightning tower at its launch site as well as the massive transporter-erector, which moved the rocket from a nearby integration hangar out to the launch site and lifted it vertically for takeoff.

To expedite a return to flight, Limp said, the company is not rebuilding the same pad and is skipping construction of a new transporter-erector (which would take a long time). The company released a video showing how its engineers envision this process working. It involves using a crane to lift the integrated first and second stages onto the launch mount. Once there, and after pre-flight testing, a payload fairing would be placed atop the vehicle ahead of launch.

Isaacman lauded Blue Origin for this transparency as it moves toward returning to flight, noting the broad interest within the space community in this topic.