Overview
- New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral at about 7:25 a.m. ET on Sunday, and its first stage landed on the drone ship Jacklyn roughly 10 minutes later.
- The booster, called Never Tell Me The Odds, first flew in November 2025 and was refurbished with all seven engines replaced and tested upgrades.
- Blue Origin said BlueBird 7 separated and powered on but entered an off-nominal orbit, with engineers assessing next steps.
- BlueBird 7 carries a very large flat phased-array antenna designed to link directly to standard smartphones, described as the largest commercial communications antenna in low Earth orbit.
- The reuse milestone is meant to cut launch costs and raise flight rates, and AST SpaceMobile plans 45 to 60 satellites this year with boosters turned around about every 30 days.