Blue Origin recently had a successful NG-2 mission with the New Glenn rocket, but more particularly its booster, as the company nailed the landing of the ship on its floating landing platform.
Blue Origin Successfully Lands New Glenn’s Booster
Blue Origin shared that in its recent mission last November 13, its New Glenn’s second deployment (NG-2) successfully landed its fully reusable booster.
The booster rocket named “Never Tell Me The Odds,” taken from a famed quote of “Star Wars” character Han Solo, propelled the second stage rocket and returned to the planet as planned.
According to Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, this is the first time in history that a “booster this large” was able to land successfully only on its second try, saying that this is only the beginning of its flight cadence.
The launch began with the New Glenn’s seven BE-4 engines igniting to propel the two-stage rocket ship carrying NASA’s ESCAPE and Plasma Acceleration payloads, as well as Dynamic Explorers’ twin spacecraft called Escapade.
Blue Origin was also able to deliver these payloads to the designated point in the low-Earth orbit, successfully reaching the point of delivery.
“Never Tell Me The Odds” returns home. pic.twitter.com/bOXm7MjcD4
— Dave Limp (@davill) November 14, 2025
Blue Origin’s CEO also shared the full video of Never Tell Me The Odds’ journey, from its detaching from the second stage rocket of the New Glenn to its re-entering the atmosphere and landing on the Jacklyn floating landing platform.
The company’s landing platform was named after founder Jeff Bezos’ late mother and was stationed on the Atlantic Ocean.
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Good overview of the landing. We nominally target a few hundred feet away from Jacklyn to avoid a severe impact if engines fail to start or start slowly. We’ll incrementally reduce that conservatism over time. We are all excited and grateful for yesterday. Amazing performance by… pic.twitter.com/DCEMsuSyPm
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 14, 2025
Closer to SpaceX with This New Glenn Milestone
According to Bezos, the company intended to have Never Tell Me The Odds hover shortly a hundred feet away from the Jacklyn landing platform in case there was a problem during its landing maneuver.
While the precaution adds a good touch from the team’s plan for the fully reusable booster rocket, it landed on the Jacklyn platform without any problems as intended by the space company.
With this massive milestone for Blue Origin in only its second overall launch for the New Glenn, it puts the company closer to SpaceX, which is best known for reusing its spacecraft and also landing its booster rockets.
However, in SpaceX’s case with the Starship, the Super Heavy Booster rocket is caught by the Mechazilla catch tower, with its maneuvers focusing on a free fall and igniting the engines at the last possible second before being caught.
SpaceX also has a landing maneuver for the second-stage Ship, which is intended for its landing ships deployed on the ocean, but recent missions saw it opting for splashdowns instead.
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