Blue Starting place’s New Glenn rocket effectively made its strategy to orbit for the second one time on Nov. 13, 2025. Even though the second one release is rarely as flashy as the primary, this undertaking continues to be important in different techniques.
For one, it introduced a couple of NASA spacecraft named ESCAPADE, which might be headed to Mars orbit to review that planet’s magnetic atmosphere and setting. The dual spacecraft will first go back and forth to a Lagrange level, a spot the place the gravity between Earth, the Moon and the Solar balances. The ESCAPADE spacecraft will stay there till Mars is in higher alignment to go back and forth to.
And two, importantly for Blue Starting place, New Glenn’s first degree booster effectively returned to Earth and landed on a barge at sea. This touchdown permits the booster to be reused, considerably decreasing the associated fee to get to area.
Blue Starting place introduced its New Glenn rocket and landed the booster on a barge at sea on Nov. 13, 2025.
As an area coverage skilled, I see this release as a favorable construction for the economic area business. Despite the fact that SpaceX has pioneered this type of release and reuse, New Glenn’s features are simply as vital.
New Glenn in context
Even though Blue Starting place would appear to be following in SpaceX’s footsteps with New Glenn, there are important variations between the 2 corporations and their rockets.
For many launches these days, the rocket is composed of a number of portions. The primary degree is helping propel the rocket and its spacecraft towards area after which drops away when its gasoline is used up. A 2nd degree then takes over, propelling the payload the entire strategy to orbit.
Whilst each New Glenn and Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s maximum tough rocket recently to be had, are partly reusable, New Glenn is taller, extra tough and will raise a better quantity of payload to orbit.
Blue Starting place plans to make use of New Glenn for quite a few missions for purchasers akin to NASA, Amazon and others. Those will come with missions to Earth’s orbit and in the end to the Moon to reinforce Blue Starting place’s personal lunar and area exploration objectives, in addition to NASA’s.
NASA’s Artemis program, which endeavors to go back people to the Moon, is the place New Glenn might transform vital. Prior to now a number of months, a number of area coverage leaders, in addition to NASA officers, have expressed fear that Artemis is progressing too slowly. If Artemis stagnates, China might be able to jump forward and beat NASA and its companions to the lunar south pole.
Those considerations stem from issues of two rockets that would doubtlessly carry American citizens again to the Moon: the distance release device and SpaceX’s Starship. NASA’s area release device, which can release astronauts on its Orion staff automobile, has been criticized as too complicated and dear. SpaceX’s Starship is vital as a result of NASA plans to make use of it to land people at the Moon all the way through the Artemis III undertaking. However its construction has been a lot slower than expected.
In reaction, Blue Starting place has detailed a few of its lunar exploration plans. They’re going to start with the release of its uncrewed lunar lander, Blue Moon, early subsequent 12 months. The corporate could also be creating a crewed model of Blue Moon that it’s going to use at the Artemis V undertaking, the deliberate 3rd lunar touchdown of people.
Blue Starting place officers have stated they’re in discussions with NASA over how they may lend a hand boost up the Artemis program.
New Glenn’s importance
New Glenn’s booster touchdown makes this most up-to-date release fairly important for the corporate. Whilst it took SpaceX a number of tries to land its first booster, Blue Starting place has completed this feat on handiest the second one take a look at. Touchdown the boosters – and, extra importantly, reusing them – has been key to decreasing the associated fee to get to area for SpaceX, in addition to others akin to Rocket Lab.
That two industrial area corporations now have orbital rockets that may be partly reused displays that SpaceX’s good fortune was once no fluke.
With this accomplishment, Blue Starting place has been ready to construct on its earlier enjoy and good fortune with its suborbital rocket, New Shepard. Launching from Blue Starting place amenities in Texas since 2015, New Shepard has taken other folks and load to the brink of area, ahead of returning to its release website beneath its personal energy.
Blue Starting place’s suborbital rocket, New Shepard.
Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs
New Glenn could also be important for the bigger industrial area business and U.S. area features. It represents actual festival for SpaceX, particularly its Starship rocket. It additionally supplies extra release choices for NASA, the U.S. executive and different industrial shoppers, decreasing reliance on SpaceX or every other release corporate.
Within the interim, Blue Starting place is taking a look to construct at the good fortune of New Glenn’s release and its booster touchdown. New Glenn will subsequent release Blue Starting place’s Blue Moon uncrewed lander in early 2026.
This 2nd a success New Glenn release may even give a contribution to the rocket’s certification for nationwide safety area launches. This accomplishment will permit the corporate to compete for contracts to release delicate reconnaissance and protection satellites for the U.S. executive.
Blue Starting place may even want to building up its selection of launches and cut back the time between them to compete with SpaceX. SpaceX is on tempo for between 165 and 170 launches in 2025 on my own. Whilst Blue Starting place won’t have the ability to reach that outstanding cadence, to in reality construct on New Glenn’s good fortune it’s going to want to display it could scale up its release operations.
