spacetoday.net: Blue Origin outlines plans for returning New Glenn to flight

Posted: Sat, Jul 4, 2026, 8:04 PM ET (0004 GMT)
Blue Origin outlined its new approach to New Glenn launch pad operations as it works to return to flight by the end of the year. The company said Tuesday that, rather than replace the transporter-erector unit destroyed in the pad explosion in late May, it will instead roll the rocket, without the payload attached, to the pad horizontally. A crane will then lift the rocket to the vertical position and install it on the pad. The same crane would later install the payload on top of the rocket. Blue Origin said that approach is one factor in its belief it can resume launches from Launch Complex 36 by the end of the year, even as the investigation into the explosion continues. NASA leadership shared Blue Origin's confidence in those plans, but added it could wait until the middle of 2027 before it would need to revise its Artemis plans, which involve using New Glenn to launch Blue Moon landers.