Blue Origin Delays New Glenn Rocket Flight to January 2027

Blue Origin delayed the return to flight of its New Glenn heavy-lift orbital rocket to January 2027. CEO Dave Limp informed employees in a Wednesday memo that the timeline shifted due to ongoing reconstruction of the company's Cape Canaveral launch pad, which suffered severe damage during a major explosion in May.

The May explosion occurred during a hot-fire test shortly before a scheduled launch of 48 satellites for Amazon's Leo internet-from-space service. The updated January target is roughly 10 days later than previous internal goals and contradicts a statement made by founder Jeff Bezos last month, who suggested a December flight.

Blue Origin is currently reworking its pad configuration and increasing investments in its Florida facilities. These efforts aim to increase launch frequency to multiple flights per week by 2030 as the company seeks to compete with SpaceX for commercial and government contracts.