Blue Origin has reached a major milestone in its push to compete with SpaceX, successfully landing its massive New Glenn booster for the first time while also sending NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft on a long-distance journey toward Mars.
New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Force Station on Thursday afternoon following several days of weather and solar-storm-related delays. Powered by seven BE-4 engines, the 321-foot rocket climbed through clear Florida skies at 3:45 p.m. EST before separating its upper stage roughly three minutes into flight.
The highlight of the launch came ten minutes after lift-off, when the booster touched down vertically on Blue Origin’s recovery ship Jacklyn, positioned about 375 miles (600 km) offshore, the company first successful recovery of an orbital-class rocket. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk even offered congratulations, posting on X, “Congratulations @JeffBezos and the @BlueOrigin team!”
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 13, 2025
While the landing grabbed headlines, the launch’s primary mission was equally important. Blue Origin’s upper stage deployed NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft—a pair of small Mars-bound orbiters—just over 33 minutes after liftoff. Built by Rocket Lab for NASA and the University of California, Berkeley, the low-cost mission aims to study how solar wind contributes to the thinning of Mars’ atmosphere. Scientists hope ESCAPADE’s dual-probe approach will produce a new 3D understanding of the Martian plasma environment.
This flight represents New Glenn’s first mission for paying customers after its debut in January carried an internal prototype payload. NASA had originally planned to fly ESCAPADE in 2024 but opted to wait for New Glenn to achieve at least one successful launch before committing the Mars mission to the new rocket.
For Blue Origin, today’s success helps cement New Glenn as a viable heavy-lift option in a launch market still dominated by SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and rapidly evolving Starship system. The company says New Glenn’s first stage is designed for up to 25 reuses, giving it a path toward lowering launch costs as it ramps up activity for government, commercial, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper customers.
