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Blue Origin proves New Glenn booster reuse, enters the reusable heavy-lift race

Managing New Glenn's first payload loss and FAA grounding; leading return-to-flight effort

Blue Origin flew a previously used New Glenn booster for the first time on April 19, 2026, becoming the second company ever to reuse an orbital-class rocket stage. The booster, 'Never Tell Me the Odds,' first flew in November 2025 and landed successfully again on the drone ship Jacklyn roughly ten minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral. One engine on the expendable upper stage didn't produce enough thrust during its second burn, leaving AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 stranded in an orbit too low for the satellite's electric thrusters to correct.

Updated May 31

Notable Quotes

With our first refurbished booster we elected to replace all seven engines and test out a few upgrades including a thermal protection system on one of the engine nozzles. We plan to use the engines we flew for NG-2 on future flights.

from Blue Origin proves New Glenn booster reuse, enters the reusable heavy-lift race · Updated May 31

We have plenty of hardware to do that — referring to his goal of eight to 12 New Glenn flights in 2026, in a Bloomberg Television interview

from Blue Origin proves New Glenn booster reuse, enters the reusable heavy-lift race · Updated May 31

While we are pleased with the nominal booster recovery, we clearly didn't deliver the mission our customer wanted, and our team expects.

from Blue Origin proves New Glenn booster reuse, enters the reusable heavy-lift race · Updated May 31