Blue Origin continues work on lunar landers during recovery from New Glenn explosion

Blue Origin’s John Couluris shows an updated design of its Blue Moon Mark 2 lander at the Spacetide conference July 6. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust

TOKYO — Blue Origin is continuing to develop its Blue Moon lunar landers, with seven vehicles in production, while recovering from the New Glenn pad explosion more than a month ago.

In a talk at the Spacetide conference here July 6, John Couluris, senior vice president for lunar permanence at Blue Origin, said the company’s work on its Blue Moon Mark 1 uncrewed lander and Mark 2 crewed lander has not been interrupted by the investigation into and recovery from the May 28 pad explosion that destroyed a New Glenn rocket and key infrastructure at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36.

“We are continuing that effort in Blue Origin while we return to flight with New Glenn,” he said. “We have not slowed down.”

That includes four Mark 1 landers in various stages of production. The first, designated serial number 1 and named Endurance, was scheduled to launch later this year before the New Glenn explosion. Couluris said the company was wrapping up testing of the lander before putting it into “quiescent operations” while awaiting a launch now expected in the first quarter of 2027.