Blue Origin to test New Glenn upper stage at NASA's Stennis B-2 stand
NASA and Blue Origin will hot-fire test New Glenn's second stage on the Apollo-era B-2 stand at Stennis starting this fall.
what happened
NASA and Blue Origin signed an annex to a Space Act Agreement, announced July 24, for Blue Origin to conduct New Glenn second-stage hot fire testing on the B-2 test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, with operations targeted to begin fall 2026. Per NASA, the second stage is powered by two BE-3U engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, each generating 200,000 pounds of thrust in vacuum; Via Satellite's independent reporting states the pair produce a combined 400,000 pounds of thrust. NASA will supply engineers, equipment, and facility modifications to ready the B-2 stand, which last tested Saturn V stages during Apollo and SLS core stages before Artemis I.
why it matters
New Glenn's second stage is central to Blue Origin's Artemis plans, including launching the Blue Moon Mark 1 lander and supporting later crewed lunar flights where New Glenn's human landing system is a competing element. Gaining access to a government heavy-class test stand lets Blue Origin validate the upper stage without building equivalent infrastructure itself, and signals how much NASA facilities still underpin commercial launch vehicle qualification even as the agency leans on fixed-price commercial contracts.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- Blue Origin, NASA
- Category
- launch
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-07-24
- Published
- 2026-07-25 10:51 UTC