<\/p>\n The milestone kept New Glenn on track for the planned Sunday (April 19) launch of NG-3, a mission that will reuse a booster from a previous flight \u2014 a first for the vehicle.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n The two-stage, 322-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn has launched twice to date. It debuted on a test flight in January 2025<\/a>, then successfully sent NASA’s twin ESCAPADE probes<\/a> toward Mars this past November<\/a>.<\/p>\n Blue Origin landed New Glenn’s first stage during the ESCAPADE launch, bringing it down softly<\/a> on the drone ship “Jacklyn” in the Atlantic Ocean. And that booster will fly again on NG-3.<\/p>\n Well, the shell of it will, anyway; some key hardware will be new.<\/p>\n “With our first refurbished booster, we elected to replace all seven engines and test out a few upgrades including a thermal protection system on one of the engine nozzles. We plan to use the engines we flew for NG-2 on future flights,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said via X<\/a> on Monday (April 13).<\/p>\n Sunday’s mission, which is scheduled to launch at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 GMT), could be the first of many reflights for this particular booster. Each New Glenn first stage is designed to fly at least 25 times, Blue Origin has said.<\/p>\n \n New Glenn’s first-stage booster after its successful landing on Nov. 13, 2025. (Image credit: Blue Origin)<\/p>\n NG-3 will send a Block 2 BlueBird direct-to-cellphone internet satellite to low Earth orbit<\/a> (LEO) for the Texas company AST SpaceMobile.<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763689751_472_tZTPw2bf9ppCJRkxJ7nuHU.png\")
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