After the Blue Origin New Glenn launch, Jacklyn returns to Port Canaveral

On January 20, 2025By Littum

Spectators on Saturday watched as Jacklyn, Blue Origin’s rocket lander, returned to Port Canaveral just as it left.

New Glenn’s first-stage booster, called So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, was nowhere to be seen. Blue Origin had confirmed after launch that the booster had been lost, but it was unknown if anything was left of that booster.

New Glenn took off on its maiden flight early Thursday from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36. The vehicle accomplished its primary goal of successfully reaching orbit. Landing the booster on the first stage would have been an added bonus.

After launch, the company unsuccessfully attempted a landing of the rocket’s first stage on the Jacklyn craft, named after founder Jeff Bezos’ mother.

No space company has ever landed the first stage of a rocket on the first try. It took SpaceX years to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 — something that has become routine now for the workhorse rocket.

“We knew to land our booster, So you’re telling me there’s a chancein the first attempt was an ambitious goal. We are learning a lot from today and will try again at our next launch in the spring. Thank you to all of Team Blue for this incredible milestone,” said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp in an email sent to the media post launch.

Landing the first-stage booster would give Blue Origin reusability, which allows a space company to reduce costs per launch. launch. So far, SpaceX is the only company to successfully land and reuse the first stage of an orbital rocket. It was just recently that a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage reached 25 flights.

Blue Origin is already successfully landing its single-stage suborbital rocket – called New Shepard – in Texas. They aspire to join the ranks of orbital reusability with New Glenn.

This week’s New Glenn launch was a test of the rocket and also a flight to certify it to carry Defense Department missions. Its payload was a pathfinder of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring. The Blue Ring is planned to be an orbiting platform that will host spacecraft and satellites.

There is currently no next launch date for this new rocket, but it is expected to launch NASA’s ESCAPDE mission to Mars this spring.

Brooke Edwards is a space reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @brookeofstars