Jeff Bezos' New Glenn rocket could launch today in Florida

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USA TODAY
Jeff Bezos' New Glenn rocket could launch today in Florida. Watch Blue Origin livestream
Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY
Wed, November 12, 2025 at 7:40 AM EST
3 min read



Jeff Bezos' New Glenn rocket could launch today in Florida. Watch Blue Origin livestream


Blue Origin is gearing up to launch its towering New Glenn rocket again just three days after poor weather in Florida foiled a previous attempt.

Named in honor of NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, New Glenn is Blue Origin's 322-foot-tall two-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle. The spaceflight company, which billionaire Jeff Bezos founded in 2000, manufactured the rocket to be reusable, with the first stage designed to last for at least 25 flights, according to Blue Origin.

The New Glenn spacecraft is not to be confused with Blue Origin's much smaller New Shepard rocket that the company launches from West Texas on brief trips taking paying passengers high above Earth's atmosphere.

Blue Origin, which hopes to compete with billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, envisions that New Glenn will be capable of shuttling Amazon's Project Kuiper satellites to orbit and undertaking missions for paying customers – including NASA and commercial entities.

In fact, New Glenn's second-ever launch will help propel a landmark NASA mission to Mars.

Here's how to watch a webcast as the massive New Glenn rocket gets off the ground from Cape Canaveral, Florida.


Blue Origin scrubs liftoff. When is New Glenn rocket launch from Florida?

Blue Origin is now working toward a launch of its New Glenn rocket on Nov. 12 from Florida's Space Coast along the Atlantic, according to its website.

The window is open from 2:50 p.m. to 4:17 p.m. ET, with the rocket getting off the ground from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base. The site is one that Blue Origin invested $1 billion to rebuild.

The attempt will be the second for Blue Origin after Bezos' company opted to postpone a Sunday, Nov. 9 launch of the New Glenn due to impeding cloud cover rolling into the area.


How to watch Blue Origin livestream

Blue Origin will provide a live webcast of the rocket launch on its website at this link, and is also likely to provide updates on social media site X.


What is NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission?

During its second-ever mission, New Glenn is due to propel NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft on their trek to Mars, where they will orbit the red planet and take simultaneous observations of solar winds and space weather.

The booster being used in the upcoming spaceflight is nicknamed Never Tell Me the Odds.

When the rocket lifts off, Blue Origin will once again attempt to land the booster on a drone ship several hundred miles offshore in the Atlantic. The upper stage carrying the payload fairing will continue in space, helping to send the ESCAPADE satellites to Mars.

The ESCAPADE satellites – short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration Dynamics Explorers – will eventually themselves seperate from the spacecraft to continue on their own independent journey, arriving in Martian orbit in 2027. The science mission itself would then take place from June 2028 to May 2029.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When is the New Glenn rocket launch? Watch Blue Origin livestream