Blue Origin Advances LC-36 Rebuild for Year-End New Glenn Return to Flight

Date:
Sun, 11 Oct 2026 14:29:52 +0000

Description:
Four months after Blue Origins New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, the company The post Blue Origin Advances LC-36 Rebuild for Year-End New
Glenn Return to Flight appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Four months after Blue Origins New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, the company remains on track to return to flight before year-end. With
roughly three months remaining, attention is focused on whether
reconstruction of Launch Complex-36 (LC-36) is approaching the halfway mark.



LC-36 Reconstruction

The most visually apparent changes involve the pad towers. Before the explosion, two structures stood: the support tower and the lightning tower. The blast toppled the lightning tower and caused structural damage to the support tower, bending beams.

Blue Origin also lost its large transporter-erector, which previously
supplied propellants and other commodities to the vehicle. To accelerate return-to-flight efforts, the company shifted from horizontal to vertical integration, eliminating the transporter-erector and relying solely on the support tower. This approach mirrors operations used with SpaceXs Starship.

The change requires not only repairs to the support tower but also upgrades
so that it can transfer super-cold cryogenic propellant from the tank farm to the vehicle. According to CEO Dave Limp, the fastest method was to destack
the majority of the modules, repair and upgrade them on the ground in parallel, and then reassemble the tower. Blue Origin teams have pursued that work since the summer, adding new floors and guard rails for worker access along with the ground support equipment needed to move cryogenic propellant
up the tower. That phase is now wrapping up.

Over the past few days, the first and second modules have returned to the tower and been stacked by one of the many cranes operating at LC-36. Blue Origin's LC-36A rebuilding: Another section added to the tower. https://t.co/2y8guyW0pi pic.twitter.com/3UaRk6u42f

NSF NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) October 6, 2026



Damage was not limited to the towers. Infrastructure beneath the rocket also sustained severe damage.

Drone footage shared by Dave Limp in July showed the launch mount and launch bridge collapsed into the flame trench. These are large slabs of metal and concrete that previously supported New Glenn and provided ground interfaces.

As with the support tower, Blue Origin sought to reuse as much existing hardware as possible rather than fabricating everything from scratch.

According to Limp, the launch bridge has been restored and is ready for use, with most of the structure salvaged. The main water piping has been reinstalled, and the two rainbirds that form part of the water deluge system are visible. The deluge protects ground infrastructure from the forces of seven BE-4 engines. Whether pad reconstruction is halfway complete remains difficult to assess. Blue Origin has moved quickly, with substantial hardware already in place. At the same time, much of the new equipment required for
the vertical integration concept of operations has not yet appeared.

This includes the hardware that will be bolted to the side of the support tower: umbilical connections to the rocket and rotating platforms for worker access to the fairing. In an interview with Fox News, Jeff Bezos said the company is targeting December for the return-to-flight mission, which will carry a Blue Ring spacecraft. He noted, jokingly, that the date could end up being December 31.

With about 12 weeks remaining until the end of the year, the schedule is tight. The interview was not highly detailed, but it contained several
notable points.

Bezos confirmed that Blue Origin is building four launch pads. These include LC-36A, which is recovering from the May explosion; LC-36B, a new pad under construction to the north specifically for New Glenn 94; Space Launch Complex-14 at Vandenberg, for which documentation has linked Blue Origin;
and, according to rumors, Launch Complex-46 at the Cape. LC-46 has previously served as a multipurpose pad for vehicles including Astras Rocket 3, the Athena family, Minotaur IV, an Orion in-flight abort test, and military missile tests.

With four pads, Blue Origin is seeking approval for weekly launches from LC-36A. Bezos said that once the company is flying weekly, he wants to fly daily; once flying daily, he wants hourly launches; and once launching
hourly, he wants launches every minute.

He acknowledged that the team considers the goal crazy, comparing it to the path toward 100 million Amazon Prime customers.

That cadence would equate to 525,600 launches per year. The figure is far below the 38.7 million commercial aircraft flights forecast for 2026, but it would involve a single rocket type and four pads rather than multiple
aircraft types and thousands of airports.

Space Vehicle

A more concrete development may involve a crew vehicle. Blue Origin has
worked on such a system for years, and recent statements have moved the
effort from rumor toward confirmation.

In 2012, Blue Origin developed a Biconic Crew Vehicle under the Commercial Crew Development program, the precursor to the Commercial Crew Program that selected SpaceXs Dragon and Boeings Starliner. After wind-tunnel testing and
a System Requirements Review, Blue Origin left the program. That was the last public mention of an orbital crew vehicle, though development is understood
to have continued out of public view.

Current commercial crew operations feature SpaceXs Dragon, which has flown regular crew rotations every six months plus additional private missions, and Boeings Starliner, which has faced repeated delays. SpaceX has indicated
plans to eventually retire Dragon in favor of Starship.

From NASAs perspective, that transition could reduce the number of dissimilar crew vehicles available for International Space Station operations, contrary to the original goal of the Commercial Crew Program.

NASA recently held a press conference naming the commander of the first operational Starliner crew mission, discussing additional missions, and stating an intent to crew-rate United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket.

In connection with those remarks, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was asked whether the agency intended to run another Commercial Crew Program-style effort to bring on an additional vehicle, similar to the second Commercial Resupply Services procurement for cargo.

NASA indicated it would support another crew vehicle but does not plan to
fund a new program specifically to onboard one. According to reporting by Aviation Weeks Irene Klotz from the International Astronautical Congress,
Blue Origin has no plans to fund such an on-ramp itself and is waiting for a NASA opportunity.

Ars Technicas Eric Berger subsequently reported the existence of a Space Vehicle, noting that testing with real hardware is approaching. Eric is spot on for this one. Weve made significant investments in human spaceflight technologies over the past couple of years

Dave Limp (@davill) October 7, 2026



The reports prompted a response from CEO Dave Limp, who stated that Blue Origin has made significant investments in human spaceflight technologies
over the past couple of years. This marks the first public confirmation of a Blue Origin orbital crew vehicle in many years.

NASA has expressed willingness to support an additional vehicle but will not fund the on-ramp. Blue Origin has a vehicle under development but will not fund the on-ramp itself. Additional details remain limited. It is unclear whether the current Space Vehicle relates to the 2012 biconic design; given the evolution of New Glenn itself, significant changes are possible.

Further information could arrive through a formal announcement accompanied by renders or images of hardware, as occurred with New Glenn 94.

(Lead image: LC-36A repair via Blue Origins Dave Limp)





The post Blue Origin Advances LC-36 Rebuild for Year-End New Glenn Return to Flight appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/10/blue-origin-lc-36-rebuild-new-glenn/


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