New Glenn set to launch on third mission, reuse booster for the first time

Date:
Sat, 18 Apr 2026 23:04:21 +0000

Description:
Just over five months after the launch of its second mission, Blue Origins partially reusable The post New Glenn set to launch on third mission, reuse booster for the first time appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Just over five months after the launch of its second mission, Blue Origins partially reusable New Glenn rocket is poised to launch from Florida early Sunday morning. The mission will mark Blue Origins first attempt at reusing a New Glenn first stage booster, with GS1-7E02 Never Tell Me The Odds set to launch again after previously launching the ESCAPADE mission to Mars for NASA in November.



New Glenns third mission, New Glenn 3 (NG-3), is scheduled to launch at 6:45 AM EDT (10:45 UTC) on Sunday, April 19, from Blue Origins Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The two-hour launch window extends to 8:45 AM EDT (12:45 UTC).

New Glenn will loft the BlueBird Block 2 FM2 satellite, also known as
BlueBird 7, into low-Earth orbit (LEO) for satellite internet provider AST SpaceMobile.

Following launch and stage separation, Never Tell Me The Odds will reorient itself for reentry and landing, completing a reentry burn and a landing burn before ultimately landing atop Blue Origins landing barge Jacklyn downrange
in the Atlantic. If successful, the landing will make Blue Origin only the second company or agency to successfully reuse an orbital-class rocket booster, after SpaceX with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.



AST SpaceMobiles BlueBird 7

Launching atop New Glenn will be AST SpaceMobiles BlueBird Block 2 FM2 internet satellite, or BlueBird 7. A second-generation BlueBird satellite, BlueBird 7 will join AST SpaceMobiles SpaceMobile satellite internet constellation, which is expected to provide 4G and 5G cellular broadband services directly to unmodified smartphones.

AST SpaceMobile was founded in 2017 and launched its first satellite, BlueWalker 1, in April 2019 atop an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket. A follow-up to BlueWalker 1, BlueWalker 3, was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in September 2022. BlueWalker 3, featuring a 64-square-meter antenna array, was used to make the worlds first space-based two-way phone call in April 2023 with unmodified smartphones. The satellite would also enable the first space-based 4G and 5G broadband connection with an
unmodified phone.

Following the successes of the BlueWalker prototypes, AST SpaceMobile began constructing its first fully operational BlueBird satellite and signed a contract with SpaceX to launch the first five satellites atop a Falcon 9. These five satellites were constructed at AST SpaceMobiles facilities in
Texas and launched in September 2024, with all five fully deployed by the end of October.

In November 2024, AST SpaceMobile announced the next BlueBird launch
contracts and the BlueBird Block 2 satellite design. Under the new launch contracts, up to 60 BlueBird Block 2 launches were split between Blue Origins New Glenn, SpaceXs Falcon 9, and the Indian Space Research Organizations (ISRO) launch vehicles. The first BlueBird Block 2 satellite, BlueBird 6, was successfully launched on Dec. 23, 2025, atop an ISRO Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) rocket from India. Artists impression of BlueBird Block 2 satellites
in orbit. (Credit: AST SpaceMobile)

The next-generation BlueBird Block 2 satellites are over three times larger than the first-generation satellites and can deliver up to 10 times the cellular bandwidth capacity to SpaceMobile users. BlueBird Block 2
satellites, like BlueBird 7, mass 6,100 kg and feature 222-square-meter communications arrays the largest ever deployed by a commercial provider in LEO.

Once the SpaceMobile constellation is fully operational, it will provide complete cellular broadband coverage to the United States, with over 5,600 cells, beams capable of supporting 40 MHz data capacity, and 120 Mbps data transmission speeds. See Also NG-3 Updates Blue Origin Section NSF Store
Click Here to Join L2

New Glenn and the reuse of Never Tell Me The Odds

New Glenn is Blue Origins heavy-lift launch vehicle and first orbital rocket, named in honor of the first American to orbit Earth, NASA astronaut John Glenn. Development of New Glenn began as early as 2012, with the vehicle suffering several delays and setbacks before finally launching on its first mission, New Glenn 1 (NG-1), in January 2025. New Glenns second mission, New Glenn 2 (NG-2), launched NASAs twin ESCAPADE spacecraft to Mars 10 months later in November 2025. Both missions successfully delivered their payloads
to LEO.

Fully assembled, New Glenn stands 98 m tall and is seven meters wide, with
two stages. The reusable first stage booster, named Glenn Stage 1 (GS1), stands 57.5 m tall and features seven of Blue Origins BE-4 engines, powered
by liquid methane and liquid oxygen. At liftoff, GS1 produces 19,928 kN of thrust and burns for 190 seconds. New Glenn launches the ESCAPADE mission in November 2025. (Credit: Sawyer Rosenstein for NSF)

As mentioned, GS1 is reusable and features six landing legs that unfold from the boosters aft section in the final moments before a vertical touchdown. After stage separation, GS1 reorients itself and continues coasting along its suborbital trajectory before igniting its engines for the reentry burn, which reduces the boosters velocity ahead of landing.

The booster then continues coasting through the atmosphere to the landing barge, using its large strakes to guide itself through the atmosphere. Then, the booster ignites its engines, slows to a hover, and lands atop Landing Platform Vessel 1 (LPV1) Jacklyn , a large landing barge similar to SpaceXs droneships.

New Glenns second stage, Glenn Stage 2 (GS2), sits atop GS1 and stands 23.4 m tall. GS2 features two of Blue Origins BE-3U engines, which produce 1,779 kN of thrust over a 644 burn time. However, unlike GS1, the second stage uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

The first stage booster supporting NG-3 is GS1-7E02 Never Tell Me The Odds, which first launched on NG-2. Following its historic landing atop Jacklyn,
the booster was returned to Port Canaveral, where it was returned to a horizontal position and transported to LC-36 for inspections. After passing inspections and tests, it was assigned to NG-3, where it will become the
first GS1 booster reused.

Launch timeline

The NG-3 New Glenn was rolled out to LC-36 for the first time on April 11 for hotfire testing, and it was raised vertically on April 12. After delays,
Never Tell Me The Odds fired up again during a hotfire test on April 16. Blue Origin confirmed a successful hotifire test, and after briefly lowering the New Glenn stack for inspections, raised the rocket one final time for launch. pic.twitter.com/CJZ2M5TjoI

Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 16, 2026



The 45th Weather Squadron of the U.S. Space Forces Space Launch Delta 45 provides launch weather forecasts for missions launching out of Cape Canaveral. For NG-3, the 45th Weather Squadron has forecasted a 10% chance of violating weather conditions at the time of launch, with the primary constraints being the cumulus cloud rule and the thick cloud layers rule. If there is a 24-hour delay to the mission, the chance of violating weather conditions increases to 50%.

Launch day begins at T-04:30:00 hours, when propellant begins flowing into
New Glenns two stages. Propellant loading will be completed by T-45:00 minutes, after which replenishment or the continuous refueling of tanks as their chilled propellants boil off begins. At T-30:00 minutes, launch teams perform a weather check to confirm that weather conditions are good for launch.

At T-17:00 minutes, B=launch teams perform the go/no-go poll for launch. Assuming teams poll go, terminal count for launch begins at T-04:00 minutes. New Glenns fuel tanks begin being pressurized at T-02:30 minutes, and the rocket switches to internal power at T-01:30 minutes. At T-30 seconds, the water deluge systems at LC-36 will be activated to suppress noise and protect the launch pad from damage during launch. Also, at T-30 seconds, the vehicles autopilot will be enabled.

Finally, at T-5.6 seconds, Never Tell Me The Odds seven BE-4 engines will ignite, and New Glenn will liftoff from LC-36 at T0 beginning its third mission to space. New Glenn launches on its first mission in January 2025. (Credit: Max Evans for NASASpaceflight)

The vehicle experiences maximum aerodynamic pressure (max-q), or the period
of ascent during which aerodynamic forces are at their greatest, at T+01:36 minutes. Main engine cutoff (MECO) occurs at T+03:05 minutes, with stage separation coming four seconds later. Never Tell Me The Odds will then begin preparations for reentry.

GS2 will ignite its two BE-3U engines at T+03:16 minutes, and the fairings encapsulating BlueBird 7 will jettison at T+03:42 minutes. Meanwhile, Never Tell Me The Odds will continue coasting through the atmosphere before
igniting three engines for its reentry burn at T+07:06 minutes. The reentry burn will last for 31 seconds.

Then, just over a minute later, at T+08:45 minutes, Never Tell Me The Odds will ignite three engines for the beginning of the landing burn. The booster will then shut down the outer two engines at T+09:03 minutes, and, after hovering above its deck, slowly descend onto Jacklyn, finally touching down
at T+09:23 minutes. Mission patch for NG-3. (Credit: Blue Origin)

GS2 will continue to orbit, finally cutting off its engines at T+13:01 minutes. The second stage and BlueBird 7 will coast for nearly an hour,
before GS2 reignites its engines at T+01:09:41 hours for a 68-second burn. Five minutes after the burn completes, BlueBird 7 will be deployed to LEO.

Over an hour later, the second stage will ignite its engines for a final time to deorbit itself. The mission will conclude with GS2s ocean impact at T+03:05:08 hours.

(Lead Image: New Glenn, with booster Never Tell Me The Odds, stands atop LC-36. Credit: Blue Origin)



The post New Glenn set to launch on third mission, reuse booster for the
first time appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/04/ng-3-launch/

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