Blue Origin is set to launch its third New Glenn rocket tomorrow, April 19, in the early morning hours. The mission will carry with it a satellite for AST SpaceMobile, but it will also fly something that has already flown before: the booster.
Blue Origin is looking to become the second company to reuse an orbital rocket booster, a feat only achieved by rival SpaceX. Rocket Lab, another orbital launch provider pursuing reusability, has reflown components of previously flown boosters but not an entire booster.
The mission is slated to launch sometime between 6:45 AM – 8:45 AM ET from Blue Origin’s launch site, SLC-36, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Inside its payload fairings will be the BlueBird 7 satellite for AST SpaceMobile, a company building out a constellation of satellites to provide cell service from space.
Coverage of the launch will begin 30 minutes before the launch on Blue Origin’s website and YouTube channel.
After successfully lofting New Glen’s second stage and the payload above Earth’s atmosphere, the booster will begin to fall back to Earth. Similar to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, it will attempt to land on a barge called Jacklyn out in the Atlantic Ocean, relighting its engines just before it makes contact, slowing it down to hit 0 mph right as it touches the deck.
This booster just flew to space a handful of months ago, launching NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars back in November 2025. With reusability being core to Blue Origin’s mission with its rockets, it’s unsurprising that the company is moving this quickly to catch up to its competitor.
In terms of the payload, BlueBird 7 will be the third of AST’s block 2 satellites. These will be some of the largest commercial satellites in low Earth orbit and will support the company’s goal to provide a worldwide network, providing up to 120 Mbps to phones. AST has partnered with AT&T to provide satellite service to phones on its networks, while SpaceX’s Starlink partnered with T-Mobile.
Space Explored’s Take
It’s rather impressive that Blue Origin is already doing booster reflight on its third flight. Now the company has taken its sweet time to get to this point, working on New Glenn for over ten years before its first flight. However, this is a major achievement for the company that is hoping to become a real competitor to SpaceX in the heavy lift and government contract business.
