NASA and Blue Origin have finalized plans to hot-fire check the second stage of the New Glenn rocket on the B-2 place of the Thad Cochran Take a look at Stand at Stennis Area Heart in Mississippi.
An annex to a reimbursable Area Act Settlement, signed earlier this month, will see testing start as early as this fall, offering Blue Origin with entry to considered one of NASA’s premier large-stage check services whereas Launch Advanced 36 at Cape Canaveral recovers from the explosion of New Glenn throughout its Static Fireplace check.
New Glenn is slated to loft Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander and help different lunar missions, whereas the corporate’s human touchdown system stays a key aspect of later Artemis flights. Nevertheless, with out an lively pad the place the autos are examined, NASA and Blue Origin labored on an interim plan.
“Successful the brand new house race means shifting sooner and dealing alongside a powerful business business. Supporting Blue Origin at NASA’s Stennis Area Heart places world-class American infrastructure to work advancing the capabilities wanted to return astronauts to the Moon, set up a sustained lunar presence, and put together for Mars,” stated NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
The second stage, designated GS2 and powered by a pair of BE-3U engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, produces a mixed 400,000 kilos of thrust in vacuum.
Below the settlement, NASA will provide engineers, specialised gear, and facility modifications to prepared the B-2 stand for the hydrogen-fueled stage. The company will even present devoted workspace and share many years of propulsion testing experience gained from prior campaigns on the stand.
LC-36 repairs drive want for alternate check website
The choice to maneuver second-stage testing to Stennis comes immediately from the extreme injury sustained by Launch Advanced 36 on Might 28, 2026. Throughout a static-fire check of the built-in New Glenn automobile deliberate for the NG-4 mission, an anomaly triggered a catastrophic explosion that destroyed the rocket—each phases totally loaded with propellant—and inflicted intensive injury on the pad.
Lightning safety towers had been toppled or closely broken, the transporter-erector was destroyed, and vital parts of the pad infrastructure had been compromised.
Blue Origin has since launched an intensive restoration effort, clearing particles, assessing structural integrity, and starting repairs with the aim of returning New Glenn to flight earlier than the top of 2026.
Launch desk is out. The 2-million-pound launch desk is heading to the Integration Facility for inspection and changes to help our future ConOps. As soon as reinstalled on the pad, it'll be outfitted with the primary stage aft umbilicals and tied into the water system, which… pic.twitter.com/Qk9bO7yKyc
— Dave Limp (@davill) July 18, 2026
The corporate can also be advancing a hybrid idea of operations and long-term plans for a second pad (LC-36B) on the Cape together with a West Coast website.
Within the close to time period, nonetheless, the broken complicated can’t help the form of built-in stage testing beforehand carried out on the pad. Shifting GS2 hot-fire work to Stennis permits Blue Origin to take care of momentum on automobile qualification with out ready for full restoration of LC-36.
“We’re proud to accomplice with NASA and construct on our shared dedication to returning America to the Moon and our broader mission to construct a highway to house for the advantage of Earth,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp added. “Stennis helped take Individuals to the Moon, and thru this partnership, it is going to assist take us again.”
Pegasus barge to ferry GS2 from the Cape
To get the stage to Mississippi, NSF L2 data notes that NASA’s Pegasus barge is scheduled to reach at Kennedy Area Focus on August 10-12. As soon as on the Advanced 39 flip basin, the barge will load a GS2 constructed and processed at Blue Origin’s close by manufacturing services in Exploration Park earlier than starting the waterborne journey to Stennis.
Pegasus itself carries a protracted pedigree of large-stage transport. Initially constructed in 1999 and later lengthened, the 310-foot barge spent the Shuttle period ferrying Exterior Tanks from the Michoud Meeting Facility close to New Orleans to Kennedy.
Within the Artemis period, it has turn out to be the first mover for SLS core phases, delivering them from Michoud to Stennis for Inexperienced Run testing and later onward to the Cape. Its upcoming GS2 run marks one other business adaptation of the identical confirmed waterway logistics which have supported NASA’s heaviest {hardware} for greater than twenty years.
B-2 stand’s deep roots in lunar-era testing
The B-2 place of the dual-position Thad Cochran Take a look at Stand was purpose-built within the Sixties for the Apollo program. Between 1967 and 1970, it static-fired a dozen Saturn V S-IC first phases, together with people who flew the crewed lunar missions.
The stand later hosted the Area Shuttle Most important Propulsion Take a look at Article, Delta IV Widespread Booster Core testing, and, most lately, the complete Inexperienced Run marketing campaign of the Artemis I SLS core stage in 2020-2021. That collection culminated within the profitable eight-minute sizzling hearth of 4 RS-25 engines that cleared the core stage for flight.
Modifications already underway for future SLS Exploration Higher Stage Inexperienced Runs will probably be leveraged and additional tailored for the New Glenn second stage, giving Blue Origin entry to a facility with expertise in testing massive cryogenic phases destined for the Moon.
Testing is focused to start this fall, with NASA offering the hands-on technical help and infrastructure providers wanted to combine the stage onto the stand. The marketing campaign will validate GS2 methods in a managed atmosphere earlier than the automobile returns to the Cape for eventual integration and flight as soon as LC-36 is prepared.
(Lead Picture through NASA).
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