Earlier today, on June 9, we got confirmation that New Glenn’s second launch is officially set to occur no earlier than August 15. Again, Blue Origin will be attempting to land and recover the booster out at sea on the company’s landing barge.
As far as what the payload will be, currently it’s unclear, but there’s some speculation it could be NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft. With the FAA mishap investigation closed, and testing already underway for the next flight vehicle, a launch in August is ambitious, but possible.
NET August 15
Only hours ago, Dave Limp, Blue Origin’s CEO, tweeted saying, “New Glenn’s second mission will take place NET August 15th. Following in the footsteps of our first booster, we’ve chosen the name “Never Tell Me The Odds” for Tail 2. One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster. This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution. We’re on track to produce eight GS2s this year, and the one we’ll fly on this second mission was hot-fired in April.”
As for the launch date, with it still being a few months out, it could easily be pushed back due to a variety of reasons. That being said, we can try to compare it to some of the mission milestones leading up to the maiden flight earlier this year. In that case, the two stages were mated around early November and late that same month were vertical on the pad, completing a wet dress rehearsal. The final big milestone was a booster static fire, which was completed in late December, a little over two weeks before the launch in mid-January.
With that in mind, relatively soon we should expect to hear about the stages coming together and possibly a wet dress rehearsal by late this month or early in July. Granted, these examples were for the maiden flight of New Glenn, so in theory, the company could have a more streamlined pre-launch schedule for the second flight.
In the tweet, he also mentioned a hot fire back in April of the second stage. That specific test was a full-duration 15-second hotfire using the two BE-3U engines. The test was successful, and they also noted that they achieved enhanced performance from the engines, increasing the maximum thrust from 173,000 lbf to 175,000 lbf per engine. With that being completed months ago, the second stage should be just about ready.
One of the big questions related to this launch and the new date is what the payload will be. While not confirmed, the current thought is NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) spacecraft. This mission consists of two spacecraft headed to Mars. For context, this vehicle was actually planned to launch on New Glenn’s maiden flight, however, the delays to New Glenn meant the window to launch ESCAPADE was closed by late October.
Regarding the upcoming mission, in a NASA budget proposal document released on May 30, it was quoted saying, “Due to delays in the development schedule of the Blue Origin New Glenn launch vehicle, NASA is in the process of establishing an updated schedule and cost profile to enable this mission to ride on the second launch of New Glenn. The ESCAPADE launch readiness date is expected in Q4 2025” they said.
While still up in the air, in a few weeks we should have a set answer. Before payload integration, there’s a decent amount of prep necessary. On the last flight, for example, NASA announced on September 6th that they would not be fueling the two ESCAPADE spacecraft. This was over a month before the original planned launch date.
Rocket Lab designed and built the twin spacecraft, called Blue and Gold. The goal is to measure plasma and magnetic fields around the red planet, helping scientists learn more about the processes that strip away atoms from Mars’ magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. With it being a Mars mission, there is some pressure on the launch window as once it’s missed, it could be a while before another opportunity opens up.
After confirming it wouldn’t launch on New Glenn’s first flight, the agency said, “The decision was made to avoid significant cost, schedule, and technical challenges associated with potentially removing fuel from the spacecraft in the event of a launch delay, which could be caused by a number of factors. Either way, if this is the payload aboard New Glenn’s second flight, we should know relatively soon.
A big focus this time around will again be a booster landing attempt. A few months ago, in late March, the FAA completed its mishap investigation following the loss of the booster on Flight 1. They were quoted saying, “The FAA oversaw and accepted the findings of the Blue Origin-led investigation. The final mishap report identified the proximate cause of the mishap as an inability of New Glenn’s first stage to restart the engines, preventing a reentry burn from occurring, and resulting in the loss of the stage. Blue Origin identified seven corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence of the event. The FAA will verify that Blue Origin implements corrective actions prior to the launch of the New Glenn-2 mission” they said.
Blue Origin was a bit more specific saying, “Our ambitious attempt to land the booster, “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,” was unsuccessful due to our three BE-4 engines not re-igniting properly.
On New Glenn, three of the seven engines gimbal to provide the control authority during ascent, re-entry, and landing on Jacklyn, the recovery vessel located downrange at sea. That gimbal capability, along with the landing gear and Reaction Control System thrusters, are key to making the booster fully reusable.
Even though the engines failed to relight, resulting in the loss of the booster, the upper stage performed as expected. Dave Limp clarified after the fact in a quote saying, “January’s GS2 performed remarkably during our inaugural New Glenn launch, delivering our payload to orbit with less than 1% deviation from the target.”
What Blue Origin really would like to do is increase launch cadence. On the bright side, the program has several vehicles in production and multiple years of orders. Customers include NASA, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, AST SpaceMobile, and several telecommunications providers, among others.
In addition, recently in April, Blue Origin won a contract to serve as a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 2 heavy-lift provider. This contract tasks New Glenn with missions to stressing orbits requiring higher performance launch systems and full mission assurance as a Space Systems Command certified launch vehicle.
This is the third national security launch-related contract they’ve been awarded in the past year. In June 2024, Blue Origin won a contract to compete for NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 missions. They also won a contract in July 2024 to compete for missions in the Orbital Services Program (OSP)-4, which allows New Glenn to compete for task orders intended to put capabilities on orbit within two years.
While the demand is there, they will need a lot more New Glenn vehicles. In the tweet from Dave Limp he mentions the company being on track to make 8 second stages this year. That’s promising but the likely holdup will be related to the booster, both in general production and when they begin landing successfully. Realistically, it could be a few more launches at least before we see a booster land and go through a refurbishment process. The names of the boosters alone help put this in perspective. The first was named “So You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance” and the second is “Never Tell Me The Odds”. Blue Origin is well aware that landing this booster out at sea on a landing vessel is far from guaranteed.
On the production side, it seems like the company is pumping out hardware such as BE-4 engines as fast as they can. By now, ULA’s demand is increasing with more and more Vulcan’s being produced and requiring 2 BE-4 engines each. When asked about BE-4 engine delivery the CEO of ULA said, “We generally mount them to a booster within a few days of each pair coming in.” In other words, there is no excess relative to the schedule, and when they’re delivered.
A big part of the design of the BE-4 engines has engine reuse in mind. The company points out that “BE-4 was designed from the beginning to be a medium-performing version of a high-performance architecture. It’s a conscious design choice made to lower development risk while attempting to meet performance, schedule and reusability requirements. With our hardware-rich approach, multiple developmental units and redundant test stands enable a high test tempo and rapid learning” they said.
For the propellant, they chose LNG because it’s highly efficient, low cost and widely available. They mention that “Unlike kerosene, LNG can be used to self-pressurize its tank. Known as autogenous repressurization, this eliminates the need for costly and complex systems that draw on Earth’s scarce helium reserves. LNG also possesses clean combustion characteristics even at low throttle, simplifying engine reuse compared to kerosene fuels” they said. Ideally, production continues to speed up as the company gets more familiar, in addition to New Glenn boosters beginning to successfully land. A process much easier said than done.
Conclusion
We just got an official launch date for New Glenn’s second flight, scheduled no earlier than August 15. Again, the company is trying to land the booster out at sea on its landing vessel. Over the next few weeks, we should get more information about the vehicle and its final preparations for launch.