Blue Origin unveils more thrust, less haste as New Glenn slips to 2027

New Glenn's return to flight has slipped to January 2027, according to the internal memo, viewed by The Register, from Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, overshadowing the company's announcements of a new third stage and booster engine.

Blue Origin has been rebuilding after its New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test in May, extensively damaging the launchpad.

A month later, the company's CEO, Dave Limp, said that Blue Origin "still plan[s] to fly again this year," which raised a few eyebrows in the space and rocket community. The detonation had pretty much destroyed the facility, and getting back into the launch business so quickly seemed optimistic.

That timetable has now slipped. In the memo, Limp praised the team's efforts but said: "We're proactively updating our anticipated launch date to January 2027."

A small slip given the damage, but one that leaves less breathing room before NASA's planned Artemis III demonstration mission, involving lunar technologies from Blue Origin and SpaceX, …