TheTechno Optimist.

New GlennBlue Origin—NG-3 reflies a booster, but an upper-stage anomaly leaves AST's BlueBird 7 in an unusable orbitMars Telecommunications Network OrbiterBlue Origin—NASA awards Blue Origin $700 million fixed-price contract to deliver Mars Telecommunications Network orbiter by end of 2028Project SunriseBlue Origin—Blue Origin files FCC application for Project Sunrise, a constellation of 51,600+ sun-synchronous compute satellitesBlue MoonBlue Origin—Blue Moon MK1 'Endurance' completes thermal-vacuum testing in Chamber A at NASA JohnsonOrbital ReefBlue Origin—Sierra Space appoints Dan Jablonsky as CEONew GlennBlue Origin—New Glenn launches NASA's ESCAPADE Mars probes and lands its booster on JacklynBlue MoonBlue Origin—NASA details Artemis III: the Orion crew will dock with Blue Moon MK1 in Earth orbit and open its hatchTeraWaveBlue Origin—Blue Origin announces TeraWave, a LEO/MEO constellation with 5,408 optically linked satellites targeting 6 Tbps aggregate and 144 Gbps per customerNew GlennBlue Origin—Blue Origin announces New Glenn 9×4, a larger variant with nine first-stage and four upper-stage enginesBlue RingBlue Origin—Blue Ring scheduled to launch with Scout Space domain awareness sensorNew GlennBlue Origin—Blue Origin traces the May New Glenn explosion to the main oxygen valve on one BE-4 engineNew GlennBlue Origin—New Glenn explodes during a static-fire test, heavily damaging Launch Complex 36Blue Origin—Former ULA CEO Tory Bruno joins Blue OriginNew ShepardBlue Origin—Blue Origin pauses New Shepard flights for at least two years to focus on lunar landersBlue MoonBlue Origin—Blue Origin says Blue Moon MK1 is in final assembly and pitches a faster, incremental plan for Artemis IIIBlue MoonBlue Origin—Blue Origin expects the MK1 lunar landing mission in Q1 2027, after the New Glenn pad explosion

Mars Telecommunications Network Orbiter

by Blue OriginUS

Enable high-bandwidth communications and navigation services for all NASA Mars missions, becoming the central relay for the agency's long-term Mars exploration program.

ProtoStage 2 of 5

NASA contract Sept 2026 for $700M. Delivery Dec 2028; operational 2030.

Updated 2 Sep 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Spacecraft design and integration complete
  1. NASA awards contractSep 2026Complete.
  2. Spacecraft design and integration completeTarget 2027Not yet reached.
  3. Delivery to NASATarget Dec 2028Not yet reached.
  4. Launch and deployment to MarsTarget 2029Not yet reached.
  5. Network operational at MarsTarget 2030Not yet reached.

Most important, last 3 months

Upcoming

  1. 2027Spacecraft design and integration complete (next)
  2. Dec 2028Delivery to NASA
  3. Dec 2028Spacecraft delivered to NASA
  4. 2029Launch and deployment to Mars
  5. 2030Network operational at Mars
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