Blue Origin

Overview

Blue Origin is a privately funded aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos in 2000. The company operates from facilities in Kent, Washington, and Cape Canaveral, Florida, focusing on reusable rocket technology to reduce the cost of spaceflight. Blue Origin's operational New Shepard suborbital vehicle has completed 38 missions carrying both research payloads and commercial space tourists. The company successfully debuted its heavy-lift New Glenn orbital rocket in January 2025, achieving orbit on its first flight and demonstrating booster recovery capability on subsequent missions.

Beyond launch services, Blue Origin is developing the Blue Moon lunar lander under NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon, with the robotic Blue Moon Mk1 variant planned for 2026. The company has expanded into national security space operations, establishing a dedicated business unit under former ULA CEO Tory Bruno in December 2025. Blue Origin also develops the Blue Ring orbital transfer vehicle and has proposed Project Sunrise, a constellation of up to 51,600 orbital data center satellites. The company secured National Reconnaissance Office launch contracts in 2026, marking its entry into classified payload missions. In January 2026, Blue Origin paused New Shepard tourism flights for at least two years to concentrate resources on Artemis lunar landing commitments.

Blue Origin has flown 4 orbital missions tracked in the NovΔ mAInd launch database, at a 75% success rate, averaging 3.2/year. Our tracking covers 2025-01-16 to 2026-04-24; earlier flights are outside this dataset.

Computed from our own launch tracker, not supplied by the company. See the full launch tracker →

New Shepard

New Shepard is a fully reusable suborbital launch system designed for research payloads and crewed space tourism flights reaching approximately 100 km altitude. The vehicle consists of a pressurized crew capsule atop a single-stage booster powered by the BE-3 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine. Payload capacity: 6 passengers or equivalent research payload mass. First flight: April 29, 2015 (uncrewed). Success rate: 38 missions with one in-flight abort demonstration. Both capsule and booster land vertically for reuse. The system entered commercial crew operations in July 2021 and completed its 38th mission (NS-38) on January 22, 2026, before tourism operations were paused later that month.

New Glenn

New Glenn is a heavy-lift two-stage orbital launch vehicle designed for commercial, civil, and national security missions. The first stage is powered by seven BE-4 liquid methane/liquid oxygen engines and is designed for at least 25 reuses through autonomous drone ship landings. The second stage uses two BE-3U vacuum engines. Payload to LEO: approximately 45,000 kg. Payload to GTO: approximately 13,000 kg. Fairing diameter: 7 meters. First flight: January 16, 2025 (NG-1, achieved orbit). Demonstrated successful booster recovery on the NG-2 mission in November 2025. The vehicle experienced a launchpad explosion during ground testing on May 28, 2026; Blue Origin is rebuilding Launch Complex 36 and targets a return to flight before the end of 2026.

Blue Moon

Blue Moon is a family of lunar landers developed for NASA's Artemis program and commercial lunar payload delivery. The Blue Moon Mk1 is a robotic cargo variant capable of delivering 3,000+ kg to the lunar surface, planned for first flight in 2026. The crewed Blue Moon Mk2 variant will transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface as part of NASA's Human Landing System contracts. Both variants use BE-7 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines optimized for lunar descent.

Blue Ring

Blue Ring is an orbital transfer and hosting vehicle designed to transport payloads between orbits, provide hosting services, and support national security missions. The spacecraft features in-space maneuvering capability and can deploy multiple payloads. Development is funded partly by Pentagon contracts, with the first national security mission planned for 2026. Blue Ring passed key development milestones in November 2025.

BE-4 Engine

The BE-4 is a liquid oxygen/liquid methane engine producing approximately 550,000 lbf thrust at sea level. Originally developed for New Glenn, BE-4 is also the primary engine for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket. The engine entered flight service on Vulcan in January 2024 and on New Glenn in January 2025.

Project Sunrise

Announced in March 2026, Project Sunrise is a proposed constellation of up to 51,600 satellites providing orbital data center services with up to 6 Tbps connectivity anywhere on Earth. The architecture and deployment timeline have not been fully disclosed.

Heritage & Track Record

2000: Blue Origin founded by Jeff Bezos with the mission of enabling human settlement beyond Earth.

2015: New Shepard completes first flight on April 29. On November 23, 2015, New Shepard becomes the first rocket to reach space and land vertically for reuse.

2021: New Shepard begins commercial crewed flights on July 20 with Jeff Bezos aboard the NS-16 mission, marking the company's entry into space tourism.

2023: NASA selects Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander for the Artemis V crewed lunar landing mission under a contract valued at approximately $3.4 billion.

2024: BE-4 engines power United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur first flight in January, establishing Blue Origin as a propulsion supplier beyond its own vehicles.

2025 January: New Glenn achieves orbit on its inaugural NG-1 flight on January 16, though the booster landing attempt was unsuccessful.

2025 June: New Shepard completes NS-33 mission on June 29, carrying philanthropist Lee Larson and conservation advocates among the crew.

2025 October: Blue Origin awarded $78.2 million contract to expand satellite processing infrastructure at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36.

2025 November: Blue Ring spacecraft passes key development milestone for 2026 national security mission.

2025 November: New Glenn NG-2 mission successfully launches NASA's ESCAPADE Mars probes and achieves first successful booster landing on drone ship (November 13).

2025 December: New Shepard completes 37th mission (NS-37) on December 20. Former ULA CEO Tory Bruno joins Blue Origin on December 26 to lead newly formed national security business unit.

2026 January: New Shepard completes 38th mission (NS-38) on January 22, its final flight before tourism operations are paused later that month for at least two years to focus resources on Artemis lunar landing program.

2026 March: Blue Origin files application for Project Sunrise constellation of up to 51,600 orbital data center satellites.

2026 April: New Glenn mission achieves successful booster landing but fails to deliver satellite payload to correct orbit.

2026 May: U.S. Space Force awards Blue Origin a task order for a National Reconnaissance Office launch on May 28. Hours later that same day, New Glenn experiences a launchpad explosion during ground testing, causing extensive pad damage at Launch Complex 36. Blue Origin is rebuilding the pad and targets return to flight before the end of 2026.

Future Plans

Blue Origin's near-term focus centers on operationalizing New Glenn for commercial and national security customers, with multiple NRO missions contracted. The company plans to launch the Blue Moon Mk1 robotic lunar lander in 2026, potentially aboard New Glenn, as a precursor to the crewed Mk2 variant supporting NASA's Artemis V mission targeted for the late 2020s. Blue Ring's first national security mission is scheduled for 2026 following successful development milestones. Project Sunrise orbital data center constellation received regulatory filings in March 2026 for up to 51,600 satellites providing global high-bandwidth connectivity, though deployment schedules remain unannounced. New Shepard tourism flights are paused until at least 2028 while the company concentrates engineering resources on lunar landing system development.

41 articles on Blue Origin published by NovΔ mAInd.

Tracked in our own launch database. See the full launch tracker →