Overview
- Blue Origin confirmed a pause of New Shepard suborbital flights for at least two years to prioritize development of its Blue Moon lunar landers and related orbital work.
- The uncrewed Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, nicknamed Endurance, has arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for thermal‑vacuum testing ahead of a planned New Glenn launch.
- NASA has asked Blue Origin and SpaceX for acceleration plans and reopened Artemis III lander procurement as Starship delays shift the earliest lunar landing target toward 2028.
- New Shepard has completed 38 missions and flown 98 people above the Kármán line, and Blue Origin says there is a multi‑year customer backlog for future suborbital flights.
- Blue Origin executives say the workforce is being redirected from suborbital operations to deep‑space systems as the company advances hardware for a potential lunar south pole mission.