Blue Origin Lands Booster, Aims for Faster Moon Return

In the past two weeks, Blue Origin has achieved significant milestones with its New Glenn rocket. On November 13th, the company successfully launched the NG-2 mission, which deployed NASA's ESCAPADE mission to Mars and included a hosted payload from Viasat. The highlight of the mission was the landing of the first stage on Blue Origin's ship, Jacklyn, in the Atlantic.

According to Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, the company is now looking to perform its next New Glenn launch early next year, possibly using the same booster that landed successfully. While the company still needs to inspect the booster and determine the level of refurbishment required, Limp stated that they had a "pretty good chance of landing" based on their simulations.

In addition to the upcoming New Glenn launch, Blue Origin has also submitted a concept to NASA for an accelerated return to the moon. The company believes it can get "boots on the moon as quickly as possible" using a simplified architecture that leverages the work already underway on the Blue Moon Mark 2 lander. Limp emphasized that while Blue Origin remains committed to the long-term sustainability of a lunar presence, the company also believes it's important to return to the moon as soon as possible from a "national prestige perspective."