Blue Origin Cancels New Glenn Recovery Ship

Blue Origin has canceled its recovery ship plans for the New Glenn boosters.

In 2018, Blue Origin acquired and moved the Stena Freighter, a roll on/roll off cargo ship to Pensacola, Florida to convert it into a landing platform for New Glenn’s first stage. They renames the ship Jacklyn, after the mother of Jeff Bezos, the company founder.

In early 2022 reports came in that Blue Origin was reevaluating their conversion of Jacklyn into a recovery ship. Blue Origin officially at that time said they had made no decision on whether to continue their conversion or not.

On August 14th, a video was released by the Port Of Pensacola where Port Director, Clark Mettitt wished the Jacklyn fair winds and following seas as it is scheduled to depart the Port of Pensacola for the Port of Brownsville after 3 years of conversion work.

He continues on to say that Jacklyn is too far along in its conversion to be reverted back to a cargo ship, so it will be taken to the Port of Brownsville where it has been tentatively scheduled to be scrapped.

A single large tug will tow Jacklyn out into the Gulf of Mexico and all the way to the Port of Brownsville.

“Blue Origin is committed to safe and cost-effective access to space, and after careful consideration have made the decision to transition away from the Jacklyn as a landing solution”

Blue Origin spokesperson

Blue Origin has not released any details on future plans for New Glenn’s first stage recovery option but we have learned they have expressed interest to the same company that build SpaceX drone ships.

The Port of Pensacola Director shared that tens of millions of US dollars of work was carried out on Jacklyn in the Port of Pensacola, employing up to 150 people at its peak.

Jacklyn is scheduled to arrive into the Port of Brownsville on August 19th, according to a vessel arrival chart by the Port.