Blue Origin

Chapter 1 · 2000 – 2012 “Gradatim ferociter”

Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin moved forward quietly for years, in small steps. Its Latin motto says it: step by step, ferociously.

A road to space

Blue Origin was born in 2000, at Jeff Bezos’s initiative. Its name means Earth, our “blue origin.” The company now sums up its mission with a sentence from its founder: “It’s this generation’s job to build a road to space, so that future generations can unleash their creativity.” It envisions a future where millions of people live and work in space in order to restore and sustain Earth. Its first objective is to radically reduce the cost of access to space, and the key, in its view, is reusability: its rockets are designed from the start to take off and land vertically, and to fly again.

A small team

The beginnings were discreet. Engineer Gary Lai, who would become lead architect of the New Shepard vehicle, joined the company in 2004; he was then among its first twenty employees.

Charon and Goddard

Blue Origin’s first flying vehicle was called Charon. Built in 2005, this 9,500-pound test vehicle used four vertically mounted aircraft jet engines to demonstrate vertical-landing technologies. It flew in early 2005 and, according to the company, provided valuable design, build and operations experience to the team. It has been on display at Seattle’s Museum of Flight since 2012.

On the morning of November 13, 2006, the company launched and landed Goddard, the first development vehicle in the New Shepard program, a vertical take-off, vertical-landing rocket designed to take a small number of astronauts on a suborbital journey into space. In January 2007 Jeff Bezos wrote: “Smaller, more frequent steps drive a faster rate of learning.” He said he believed in incremental improvement and in keeping investments at a sustainable pace, and signed off with a Latin motto: “Gradatim Ferociter!”, step by step, ferociously.

Sources: Blue Origin, “About Blue” (Jeff Bezos’s quotation on the road to space, the meaning of the name, the millions of people, reducing cost, reusability, vertical take-off and landing); Blue Origin, “Blue Origin’s Original Charon Flying Vehicle Goes On Display at the Museum of Flight,” May 23, 2012 (built in 2005, 9,500 pounds, four jet engines, flown in early 2005, design experience, display); Blue Origin, “Flight Test – Goddard Low Altitude Mission,” January 2, 2007 (November 13, 2006, New Shepard, “Smaller, more frequent steps drive a faster rate of learning,” incremental improvement, “Gradatim Ferociter!”); Cornell University, “Blue Origin’s Gary Lai ’95 Rockets to (Suborbital) Space,” and University of Washington Magazine (Gary Lai joined in 2004 among the first twenty employees, lead architect of New Shepard); Wikipedia, “Blue Origin” (founded in 2000; tertiary source).

Chapter 2 · 2012 – 2025 Engines and New Glenn

After the demonstrators, Blue Origin built engines, a suborbital rocket that flew dozens of times, then a giant launcher. It reached orbit on its first try, in January 2025.

The engines

New Shepard, the reusable suborbital rocket, made dozens of flights with its BE-3PM engine, burning liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The company then developed the BE-4, a reusable engine burning liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas that generates 640,000 pounds of thrust at sea level; two BE-4s also power the first stage of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. These engines are produced at rate in Kent, Washington, and Huntsville, Alabama.

New Glenn

New Glenn, named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, stands more than 320 feet (98 meters) tall. Its first stage, powered by seven BE-4 engines, is designed for a minimum of twenty-five flights; its second stage uses two BE-3U engines that can restart in space. Its seven-meter fairing offers twice the volume of five-meter fairings. It can carry more than 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit and more than 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit.

On January 16, 2025, at 2:03 a.m. Eastern time, New Glenn’s seven engines ignited at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral. The rocket reached its intended orbit on its very first flight, NG-1, and deployed the Blue Ring Pathfinder. The first stage, however, was lost during descent. “We knew landing our booster… on the first try was an ambitious goal,” acknowledged CEO Dave Limp.

Sources: Blue Origin, “New Glenn” page (BE-4 burning oxygen and liquefied natural gas, 640,000 lbf, two BE-4s on Vulcan, Kent and Huntsville, John Glenn, more than 320 ft, seven BE-4s, at least 25 flights, two BE-3Us, seven-meter fairing, 45 t to LEO and 13 t to GTO, dozens of New Shepard flights with the BE-3PM); Blue Origin, “Blue Origin’s New Glenn Reaches Orbit,” January 16, 2025 (2:03 a.m., Launch Complex 36, orbit reached, Blue Ring Pathfinder, booster lost, “We knew landing our booster… on the first try was an ambitious goal”). The dates of New Shepard’s first flights and of BE-4 development are not given by the pages consulted.

Chapter 3 · 2022 – 2026 First launch toward Mars

Blue Origin was never a Mars company. Yet New Glenn’s first science mission headed for Mars, and in 2026 NASA chose it to build a telecommunications relay at Mars.

ESCAPADE

On January 26, 2022, Blue Origin was on-ramped to a NASA launch services contract for small missions. On February 9, 2023, NASA awarded it the launch of ESCAPADE, two small twin spacecraft built by Rocket Lab and led by the University of California, Berkeley, which are to study how the solar wind interacts with Mars’s magnetic environment and drives the escape of its atmosphere.

On November 13, 2025, at 3:55 p.m. Eastern time, New Glenn lifted off on its second mission, NG-2. It placed the two spacecraft into their loiter orbit, and its first stage landed on Jacklyn, a floating platform in the Atlantic. “Never before in history has a booster this large nailed the landing on the second try,” said Dave Limp. The spacecraft did not head straight for Mars: they wait near Lagrange point 2, about a million miles from Earth, then are to loop back past Earth in November 2026 and use its gravity to slingshot toward Mars, arriving in September 2027 and starting their science campaign in June 2028.

Reuse and an accident

On April 19, 2026, NG-3 lifted off with AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite, its first stage again heading for the Jacklyn platform. On May 28, 2026, during a hotfire test on the ground, a significant anomaly struck Launch Complex 36; early analysis pointed to the aft section of the first stage. The lightning tower, the transporter-erector and hydraulic cylinders were lost. The company announced a return to flight before the end of the year, with a new way of assembling the rocket.

A relay for Mars

On September 2, 2026, Blue Origin announced that NASA had selected it to develop and deliver a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, part of the Mars Telecommunications Network, the first dedicated high-speed relay network at the red planet. The orbiter will be built on Blue Ring, a spacecraft with hybrid solar-electric and chemical propulsion, produced in Huntsville at a planned rate of four a year. It is to provide near-continuous communications between assets on and around Mars and Earth, for robotic and then human missions.

Sources: Blue Origin, “NASA Awards Mars Science Mission Launch to Blue Origin’s New Glenn,” February 9, 2023 (on-ramp of January 26, 2022, ESCAPADE award, magnetosphere); NASA, “NASA, Blue Origin Launch Two Spacecraft to Study Mars, Solar Wind,” November 13, 2025 (3:55 p.m., Launch Complex 36, Rocket Lab, Berkeley, L2 about a million miles away, November 2026, September 2027, June 2028); Blue Origin, “New Glenn Launches NASA’s ESCAPADE, Lands Fully Reusable Booster,” November 13, 2025 (loiter orbit, Jacklyn, solar wind and atmospheric escape, “never before in history has a booster this large nailed the landing on the second try”); Blue Origin, “NG-3” page (April 19, 2026, BlueBird 7, Jacklyn); Blue Origin, “New Glenn Return to Flight,” June 30, 2026 (anomaly of May 28, 2026, aft section of the first stage, equipment lost, return to flight before year’s end, new assembly); Blue Origin, “Blue Origin Selected by NASA to Help Build America’s Mars Telecommunications Network,” September 2, 2026 (MTO, Blue Ring, hybrid propulsion, Huntsville, four a year, near-continuous communications). The earlier page stated that NG-3 reused NG-2’s first stage; the mission page does not say so.