Blue Origin is heading into its most important test yet against SpaceX, which will take place when its New Glenn rocket makes its first repurposed booster demonstration.
The NG-3 mission represents the third operational test of the New Glenn rocket, which is 328 feet tall and designed for 25 reusable missions, starting with the first stage. The outcome of this landing attempt will have significant consequences beyond this specific launch.
What flies and why is BlueBird 7 unusually large?
The main payload aboard NG-3 is BlueBird 7, a direct-to-mobile Internet satellite built by Texas-based AST SpaceMobile. It is the second ‘Block 2’ satellite in the company’s growing constellation and one of the largest commercial satellites currently operating in low Earth orbit, with an antenna measuring 2,400 square meters, approximately the footprint of a modest family home.
Its predecessor, BlueBird 6, was launched last December on an Indian LVM3 rocket and has the same dimensions. The earlier Block 1 satellites in the same constellation have antennas of just 60 square meters each, making the generational leap in scale immediately apparent.
The first stage to fly on NG-3 is the same booster core that successfully landed on Blue Origin’s Atlantic droneship, Jacklyn, during the NG-2 mission in November 2025 – the flight that launched NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars probes into orbit. For this launch, Blue Origin replaced all seven BE-4 methalox engines and introduced several upgrades, including a thermal protection system on one engine nozzle.
The company’s CEO confirmed the configuration on April 13 as he stated that future flights would use the original NG-2 engines.
The booster, nicknamed “Never Tell Me the Odds,” conducted a 19-second static burn test on April 16 before moving to Launch Complex-36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft will launch over a two-hour period beginning at 6:45 a.m. EDT on Sunday.
Blue Origin’s commercial activities must be based on the reusable technical performance that serves as their fundamental technical performance.
New Glenn is the launch vehicle intended to deliver the company’s Blue Moon lander to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Blue Moon recently completed vacuum chamber testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and is being shipped to Kennedy Space Center for further qualification.
NASA has restructured its Artemis timeline, which now sets mid-2027 as the target date for a crewed lunar landing attempt using the lander, Blue Moon or SpaceX’s Starship, that completes development first.
NASA must complete demonstrations for both vehicles, which they must go through before the agency will grant certification for crewed missions.
