Source : Reuters | AI-generated illustration
NEW YORK, November 5, 2026 — Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin has pushed its next New Glenn rocket launch to January 2027, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, citing an internal memo from chief executive Dave Limp after months of repairs to a damaged Florida launch pad.
New Glenn, Blue Origin’s heavy-lift orbital rocket, has been grounded since a May explosion on the company’s only pad at Cape Canaveral, days before a planned mission carrying Amazon satellites. The blast badly damaged the facility where the roughly 30-storey vehicle had lifted off three times since its 2025 debut.
Limp told employees that summer weather had slowed reconstruction, though the company had repaired and restacked the Vehicle Access Tower and restored the launch bridge. “Rebuilding at this pace hasn’t been easy. For those of you who live at or visit the Cape, you know that this summer’s weather has not been our friend,” he wrote in the memo seen by Reuters.
Blue Origin had previously aimed to return to flight by the end of 2026. Bezos said last month that a December launch was still expected. The January 2027 window is a modest slip from that target but extends a grounding that has already disrupted Amazon’s Leo satellite internet schedule and other commercial and NASA-linked plans.
Amazon’s growing Leo constellation, intended to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, relies on Blue Origin as a key launch provider. The May mishap wrecked a booster during a hot-fire test and left the pad “practically destroyed,” earlier Reuters reporting said, with engineers then expecting months of disruption.
CNBC and Channel News Asia corroborated the delay, noting that Limp called returning New Glenn to flight the company’s top priority and praised staff for accomplishing in six months work that many thought would take years. Blue Origin did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Thursday.
The setback has reinforced SpaceX’s dominance in heavy-lift commercial launches while Blue Origin rebuilds. NASA officials have previously said they remain committed to New Glenn for lunar cargo missions but have watched the recovery timeline closely into 2027.
Limp said the adjustment did not diminish what the team had achieved or the work still ahead. Industry analysts said the next flight will be watched as a test of whether Blue Origin can restore a reliable cadence after its first serious pad accident.
Source: Reuters on X, with background from CNBC, Channel News Asia, earlier Reuters reporting and Spaceflight Now coverage of the May mishap recovery.
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