Skip to main content

How to watch Blue Origin launch and land its reusable rocket on Tuesday

Promotional image for Tech For Change. Person standing on solar panel looking at sunset.
This story is part of Tech for Change: an ongoing series in which we shine a spotlight on positive uses of technology, and showcase how they're helping to make the world a better place.

It’s not just SpaceX that has been hard at work developing a reusable rocket system.

Blue Origin, established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has also created a rocket that can land upright shortly after launch.

Recommended Videos

On Tuesday, October 13, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will be making its first outing since December 2019 in what will be the company’s 13th mission, with this particular booster heading skyward for a record seventh time — one launch more than SpaceX’s most-used Falcon 9 booster.

Blue Origin’s launch attempt at its site in West Texas comes two weeks after the same mission — called NS-13 — was postponed due to a technical issue.

NS-13 will see New Shepard fly 12 commercial payloads to suborbital space and back.

One of the payloads, NASA’s “Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration,” will be attached to the exterior of the rocket, marking the first time Blue Origin will send a payload to suborbital space on the outside of the spacecraft rather than inside the capsule.

It’s designed to test precision landing technologies for NASA’s planned Artemis mission to the moon in 2024, which is aimed at putting the first woman and next man on the lunar surface.

“The experiment will verify how these technologies (sensors, computers, and algorithms) work together to determine a spacecraft’s location and speed as it approaches the moon, enabling a vehicle to land autonomously on the lunar surface within 100 meters of a designated point,” Blue Origin said in its mission notes. “The technologies could allow future missions — both crewed and robotic — to target landing sites that weren’t possible during the Apollo missions, such as regions with varied terrain near craters. Achieving high accuracy landing will enable long-term lunar exploration and future Mars missions.”

Other payloads include an autonomous plant-growth system from Space Lab Technologies, embedded cooling technology for power-dense spacecraft electronics from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and technology to enable probes to attach to asteroids that was built by the Southwest Research Institute.

How to watch

Blue Origin rarely livestreams its launches, so catch this one while you can. After launch, be sure to wait around for the booster landing back on terra firma a short while later, as well as the return of the capsule as it floats back to Earth with parachutes.

The launch will take place at 9:35 a.m. on Tuesday, October 13.

You’ll be able to watch by visiting NASA’s YouTube channel or via Blue Origin’s website.

Current weather conditions for the launch are favorable, but we still recommend you keep an eye on Blue Origin’s social feeds at Facebook and Twitter for any last-minute changes to the schedule. We’ll also update this article if anything changes.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Blue Origin abandons Monday’s effort to launch New Glenn rocket
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Blue Origin has scrubbed Monday’s highly anticipated launch attempt of its New Glenn rocket.

With just 13 minutes remaining on the countdown clock at Cape Canaveral in Florida early on Monday morning, the decision was taken to stand down to give engineers a chance to troubleshoot “a vehicle subsystem issue.”

Read more
How to watch Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch for the first time
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

UPDATE: Following Monday morning's scrubbed launch attempt of the New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin is now targeting Thursday, January 16, for liftoff. More details below.

Blue Origin, the spaceflight company set up by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is about to perform the first launch of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket.

Read more
Blue Origin reveals target date for debut flight of New Glenn rocket
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Blue Origin is targeting New Glenn’s inaugural mission (NG-1) for no earlier than Friday, January 10. It will launch from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, the company announced on Monday.

The three-hour launch window opens at 1 a.m. ET (10 p.m. PT on Thursday, January 9).

Read more