NASA has entered into a new agreement with Blue Origin to host second-stage hot fire testing for the company’s New Glenn rocket. The testing, scheduled to commence this fall, will take place at the B-2 test stand located at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Under the terms of the reimbursable Space Act Agreement, NASA will supply the necessary engineering support, equipment, and facility services to prepare the B-2 stand for the trials. The agency will also provide workspace and share technical expertise derived from its history of propulsion testing. The New Glenn’s second stage utilizes two BE-3 engines, which run on liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to produce 200,000 pounds of thrust each.
The B-2 test stand has a long history of supporting lunar exploration, having been originally constructed to test Saturn V rocket stages during the Apollo era. More recently, it was used for the Green Run test series of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage ahead of the Artemis I mission.
This collaboration is part of a broader effort to support the Artemis program, which aims to return American astronauts to the lunar surface and establish a sustained presence near the Moon's South Pole. Blue Origin is currently involved in multiple aspects of these goals, including the development of human landing systems and the upcoming launch of the Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander, which is designed to deliver payloads to the lunar surface.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp noted that the partnership leverages the historic capabilities of Stennis to advance future missions. NASA officials emphasized that the collaboration strengthens the domestic industrial base and helps maintain American leadership in space exploration as the agency prepares for future crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.
Source: NASA
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