‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
JETTY PARK/PORT CANAVERAL/CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL – Accompanied by very choppy seas a rather magnificent looking New Glenn droneship recovered 1st stage arrived back at Port Canaveral channel around 1 p.m. ET on April 22 – sailing by hordes of spectators eager to witness this 1st ever 2x launched & landed 1st stage booster from the Blue Origin NG-3 mission that performed well but ultimately doomed the AST Space Mobile payload when the upper stage failed to fire correctly to place it into a survivable orbit
Standing vertical atop the Jacklyn droneship upon which it landed upright the ‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn rocket looked very clean and bright!! Not scorched to hell at all – like the SpaceX Falcon 9 1st stages we see quite often sometimes 2 or 3 times per week
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
The stage arrived back 3 days after the April 19 liftoff on NG-3 mission
The 189-foot-tall (58-meter-tall) first stage booster dubbed ‘Never Tell Me The Odds’ had achieved a successful and very dramatic touchdown on Blue Origin’s Jacklyn droneship stationed some 400 miles downrange near the Bahamas some 9 minutes after the April 19 liftoff.
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
Enjoy our photos by Ken Kremer for Space UpClose
The Blue Origin New Glenn-3 (NG-3) rocket had blasted off beautifully on Sunday morning, April 19, about 40 minutes later than planned just past sunrise at 7:25 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
The Blue Origin recovery fleet including the Jacklyn Droneship towed by tugboat Harvey Stone arrived offshore of Port Canaveral the evening before Port entrance and waited until daylight and no cruise ship traffic before approaching the mouth of Port Canaveral channel and sailing through to the north cargo pier docking spot beside the existing SpaceX booster processing area
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
The long delayed prior flight dubbed New Glenn-2 (NG-2) successfully launched NASA’s twin ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) Mars Orbiters to the Red Planet to study the solar wind’s interaction with Mars and its weak magnetic field and how it strips away and depletes the atmosphere
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
The upper stage performed perfectly for NASA’s ESCAPADE.
The upper stage of the 321 ft tall New Glenn rocket is powered by two BE-3U engines and is not designed for recovery and reuse
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
Ken Kremer recent TV interviews
Ken Kremer interview on Fox 35 Orlando about Blue Origin NG-3 mission. Screenshot: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/Fox35 Orlando
I was interviewed on TV about the failed NG-3 launch by several news outlets and Fox 35 Orlando featured several of my launch photos
Apr 20/21 WFTV ABC News Orlando: I was interviewed about Artemis III core stage shipping to KSC and failed New Glenn-3 launch
Apr 20/21 Fox 35 Orlando evening news: I was interviewed about Artemis III core stage shipping to KSC and failed New Glenn-3 launch. Also includes my New Glenn-3 launch photos
Apr 20 Fox 35+ Orlando: I was interviewed live by Fox 35 Orlando about Artemis III core stage shipping to KSC and failed New Glenn-3 launch. Also includes my New Glenn-3 launch photos
‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket looked very clean and bright as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.comKen Kremer of Space UpClose backdropped by ‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
Ken Kremer of Space UpClose backdropped by ‘Never Tell Me the Odds’ reused and landed 1st stage from Blue Origin New Glenn NG-3 rocket as it arrived atop the Jacklyn droneship and sailed back into Port Canaveral, FL, sailing past Jetty Park Pier midday on April 22, 2026. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com
Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news. Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics. Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events.
TITUSVILLE, FL – I was interviewed live on FOX 35 Orlando on May 26, 2026 about NASAs Moon base plans. Features My commentary outlining NASAs Moon base plans and whats needed to achieve this ambitious project to establish a permanent human presence with a base on the lunar south pole starting by the end of this decade. Watch my complete
PORT CANAVERAL/TITUSVILLE, FL- Two days after a beautiful sunrise blastoff that caused the formation of an undulating space jellyfish high in the skies over the Florida Space Coast, the veteran and scorched first stage that propelled that Starlink mission to orbit on May 21, has arrived back into Port Canaveral See our photos taken on May 23 across from the
