17 June 2026 Blue Origin announced at the VivaTech conference in Paris this year
about significant progress in the restoration of the launch complex 36 at Cape Canaveral after the explosion during the fire tests of the New Glenn 28 May.
The explosion caused serious damage, in particular, the collapse of the lightning conductor and the complete destruction of the transporter-erector. At the same time, key elements of the infrastructure, such as the fuel tank farm, as well as the New Glenn booster, that was in the hangar, remained intact. The site has already been completely cleared of debris and its reconstruction has begun. Blue Origin plans to resume New Glenn launches until the end 2026 year. To speed up the process, the company will move
to an alternative vertical concept of operations, which will not require replacement of the transporter-erector.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos noted, that demand for launches remains extremely high, and the order portfolio is significant. This concerns, in particular, NASA missions
as part of the Artemis program using the Blue Moon lunar lander. Chief Executive Officer of the company Dave Limp said, which is already at the beginning 2027 2018, the Blue Moon Mark robotic lander will be launched 1 (Moon Base mission 1). It will be followed by the launch of Mark 2 for Artemis 3 and another Mark 1 with the VIPER rover. During the restoration work, the company successfully conducted the longest ever 41-minute fire test of the BE-7 engine, which will be used on the Blue Moon landers.
Source: https://spacenews.com