Blue Origin droneship arrives in Port Canaveral ahead of New Glenn launch

Pulled by Blue Origin's support ship, Harvey Stone, a droneship like no other arrived in Port Canaveral Wednesday morning. What arrived can only be described as a floating first-stage rocket center ? a "landing platform vessel" complete with buildings on the front and back which sported the words "Blue Origin" and "New Glenn".

Jacklyn is the name of this droneship. That also happens to be the name of the mother of Blue Origin founder, Jeff Bezos.

What Jacklyn's arrival at Port Canaveral means is that soon SpaceX will not be the only space company landing rockets on droneships in the Atlantic Ocean. Blue Origin has ambitious plans to do the same with the first stage of their New Glenn rocket.

New Glenn is expected to make its debut no earlier than later this year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The massive 320-foot-tall heavy-lift rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 36 — where the space company has invested more than $1 billion on reconstruction work.

Blue Origin has been quietly working towards the debut launch for most of the year. Back in February, Cape Canaveral saw New Glenn standing vertically on the launch pad. Blue Origin has also been spotted doing various other forms of testing, including recovering a mock-up of the New Glenn first-stage back in August.

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Blue Origin has nearly perfected the landing of their single-stage suborbital (straight up and down) New Shepard rocket, which launches a capsule of six space tourists on a short spaceflight from West Texas. However, they have not yet attempted to do so with their multi-stage giant orbital New Glenn rocket. The rocket is named is named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.

According to Blue Origin, their New Glenn rocket's first stage, which will land on Jacklyn, will be able to be reused up to 25 times ? which is comparable to SpaceX's Falcon 9, which has so far been proved reusable up to 22 times.

Currently, Blue Origin's customer flights for New Glenn include: NASA's ESCAPADE ? which is now set to launch no earlier than Spring 2025, Amazon Project Kuiper satellites, and TELESAT internet satellites.

Blue Origin rocket testing this week at Cape Canaveral

In a few days at Launch Complex 36, Blue Origin plans to test the BE-3U engine of its New Glenn rocket. According to Blue Origin, the extra power from the BE-38 engine will allow the upper or second stage to preform a wide range of different missions ? such as send a NASA mission to Mars. No specific information on the testing was given.

Blue Origin describes the entire New Glenn flight sequence in this way: "New Glenn lifts off. Following separation, the first stage autonomously descends to a landing platform located 620 miles (1,000 km) downrange. The two BE-3Us ignite, propelling the second stage into space. The fairing separates, safely delivering the payloads into orbit."

With the end of the year quickly approaching, Blue Origin keeps showing signs of pushing forward.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @brookeofstars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Blue Origin's New Glenn droneship 'Jacklyn' arrives at Port Canaveral