Blue Origin insists New Glenn will rise from the ashes this year after explosion deleted launchpad

Blue Origin's boss has reiterated that the Jeff Bezos-owned space biz will return to flight this year after an explosion destroyed a New Glenn rocket and severely damaged its launchpad. CEO Dave Limp last week used X to praise workers who have been clearing the wreckage from Launch Complex 36. "We have started reconstruction and still plan to fly again this year," he said. Over the weekend, Limp posted a video showing the assembly of a crane beside the launchpad's tower, which is being dismantled for repairs. Time is of the essence. At the end of May, a New Glenn rocket exploded during a static fire test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 36 in Florida. In addition to destroying the rocket, the site - Blue Origin's only New Glenn launch complex - was severely damaged. The scale of the damage makes resuming launches in 2026 seem optimistic. The explosion of a SpaceX Falcon 9 at Space Launch Complex 40 in 2016 left the facility out of use for more than a year before launches resumed. However, Limp's posts indicate Blue Origin is still aiming to return to flight before 2027. Blue Origin's New Glenn is required to loft the company's lunar lander for an in-orbit demonstration during Artemis III, which NASA has tabled for 2027. The mission aims to rendezvous with lunar landing tech supplied by SpaceX and Blue Origin. For SpaceX, this is currently a Starship with a docking adapter on its nose, although Starship has yet to reach orbit. Blue Origin plans to provide a more functionally complete lander that astronauts can enter during the demonstration. That depends on Blue Origin being able to launch it. The size and propulsion requirements mean it is not simply a matter of sticking it on another rocket. If Limp's estimates are correct, there would be little point in other companies making the necessary adaptations. Blue Origin is not the only company affected by the New Glenn explosion. The cause remains unclear, but until the rocket's BE-4 engines are cleared for flight, a question mark likely hangs over the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, which also uses them. That said, ULA has its own problems. The Vulcan Centaur has experienced several solid rocket booster nozzle "anomalies" during its life, the most recent of which occurred in February. However, it did not prevent the payload from being delivered as planned. The US Space Force later decided to pause national security launches on the rocket until the issue was resolved. (R)