What? Two Blue Origin headlines in one week?

I suppose it might have happened here before but I'm not sure how to navigate the search engines to show that.

This Wednesday (Jan. 21) the story was Blue Origin's satellite megaconstellation called TeraWave. Today's story is about Blue's pursuit of reusability. Blue confirmed on Thursday that they will reuse the New Glenn booster used on flight two back on November 13th No Earlier Than late February. It will be launching the next-generation Block 2 BlueBird satellite for AST SpaceMobile.

“The mission follows the successful NG-2 mission, which included the landing of the ‘Never Tell Me The Odds’ booster. The same booster is being refurbished to power NG-3.”  

That November 13th NG-2 mission was 10 weeks ago. Let's assume they launch NG-3 on February 28th, just to get a number to play with - that's five weeks from today, making a 15 week turnaround from first flight of the booster to its second. If the launch is two weeks later, mid-March, it's still only 17 weeks for the turnaround time. 

A direct comparison to SpaceX is difficult, partly because Blue Origin is working in an aspect of reusability that SpaceX didn't have for their first successful booster recovery. Essentially, Blue Origin is learning things about reusability that didn't exist for SpaceX. Nobody had the experiences they learned from.

By way of comparison, SpaceX did not attempt to refly the first Falcon 9 booster it landed in December 2015. Instead, initial tests revealed that the vehicle’s interior had been somewhat torn up. It was scrapped and inspected closely so that engineers could learn from the wear and tear. 

SpaceX successfully landed its second Falcon 9 booster in April 2016, on the 23rd overall flight of the Falcon 9 fleet. This booster was refurbished and, after a lengthy series of inspections, it was reflown successfully in March 2017, nearly 11 months later.

It's pretty ballsy. Blue Origin is looking to launch a booster on just the third overall flight of a New Glenn and will turn the rocket around in less than four months. Blue Origin is not a newbie startup - they've existed since 2000 and started launching their New Shepard suborbital flights in 2015. They're well-funded and have access to more information than any other company has had. 

Blue Origin originally planned to launch its MK1 lunar lander on the third flight of New Glenn, but it pivoted to a commercial launch as the lunar vehicle continues preparatory work.

On Wednesday, the company announced that it had completed the integration of the MK1 vehicle and put it on a barge bound for Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, it will undergo vacuum chamber testing before a launch later this spring—or, more likely, sometime this summer.

Artist's concept drawing of two Block 2 BlueBird satellites for AST Space Mobile. The satellites will provide direct-to-cell connectivity. Credit: AST SpaceMobile