Florida TodayBlue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket may launch Sunday from Cape CanaveralRick Neale, Florida Today
Updated Tue, November 4, 2025 at 8:35 AM EST
3 min read
(This story has been updated after the Federal Aviation Administration moved the primary launch window from Friday to Sunday.)Ten months after its historic maiden liftoff, Blue Origin's hulking New Glenn rocket may launch for the second time Sunday, Nov. 9, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Blue Origin is targeting an afternoon launch window from 2:45 p.m. to 5:11 p.m., a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory indicates. The massive 321-foot New Glenn will rumble into flight from Launch Complex 36 — a vantage point readily visible to spectators along the Cape Canaveral-Cocoa Beach oceanfront.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for sunny skies Sunday with a high near 84 for Blue Origin's NG-2 mission at the Space Force installation, accompanied by a 20% chance of showers.
The two-stage rocket will propel NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft on their trek to Mars, where they will orbit the red planet and take simultaneous observations on its magnetosphere.
Launch preparations have been underway for weeks. On Oct. 8, Blue Origin rolled out the 188-foot first-stage booster from its sprawling Rocket Park manufacturing complex on north Merritt Island for a slow-speed truck journey across NASA's Kennedy Space Center to its launch facilities.
The booster's nickname: Never Tell Me The Odds. The booster from January's inaugural flight failed to land atop Blue Origin's drone ship Jacklyn in the Atlantic Ocean after liftoff — but technicians will try again.
"One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster. This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a June tweet.
A rundown of New Glenn events during recent days at the Cape:
Wednesday, Oct. 29: The fully stacked New Glenn went vertical on the launch pad during nighttime hours.
Thursday, Oct. 30: Crews ignited New Glenn's seven BE-4 seven engines during a 38-second hotfire test. Company officials declared the test a success, and all engines operated at 100% thrust for 22 seconds.
Friday, Oct. 31: In a tweet, Blue Origin officials announced NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft were "encapsulated and 'red-y' for Mars" inside New Glenn's 7-meter fairing.
The Space Coast's 92nd and record-tying 93rd orbital launches of 2025 are scheduled back-to-back from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A SpaceX Falcon 9 should lift off between 6:08 p.m. and 10:08 p.m. on a Starlink mission, followed by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch slated for 10:24 p.m.
Afterward, a second SpaceX Starlink mission early Saturday morning would break the annual record as the 94th launch. Launch window: 3:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Blue Origin's subsequent Sunday launch would clock in at No. 95 of the year thus far.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/blue-origins-huge-glenn-rocket-133527913.html
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