Blue Origin fires refurbished New Glenn booster ahead of weekend launch

Blue Origin conducted a roughly 20-second static fire of seven BE-4 engines on a refurbished New Glenn booster (NG-3) as it primes for a weekend launch of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird-7 satellite; the company replaced all seven engines and added upgrades including a thermal protection system, signaling progress in reusing an orbital-class booster after NG-2, while noting no landing pad plans yet and placing the effort in the broader Artemis-era lunar and NASA collaboration context.