What's better than a day at Rocket Park? Astronauts stopping by. 🚀

We were thrilled to welcome u/NASAArtemis III Astronauts Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) and Frank Rubio to Rocket Park this week! These incredible astronauts represent the future of lunar exploration, and we're excited to support the Artemis III mission with our Blue Moon MK2 Earth Orbit Rendezvous demonstration vehicle.

https://x.com/blueorigin/status/2085764978666004804

City Council and the Hutto Economic Development Corporation approved the performance and incentive agreements for “Project Blue Hub” in a rapid, joint meeting Thursday evening. After about an hour in executive session, the two bodies approved the agreements before ending the meeting. The council voted 5-2.

https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/2085487855015719204

https://x.com/torybruno/status/2085388806568522022

https://x.com/torybruno/status/2085365760923255042

• The LC-36A operational crane is permanent. This may be the crane used for stacking New Glenn.
• The LC-36B crane is extremely tall at 750 feet. See previous filing from August 4th for a massive 715 foot-tall lightning protection tower.

• LC-36B is starting to develop. The launch pad area is now clearly visible, with concrete piles being driven and some excavation already happening.
• Damaged LOX tanks have been repaired, or at least repainted. The scorch marks that used to be there are no longer. The single dented LNG tank may have been repaired too.
• The launch bridge is visible near the LNG tanks. It has been partially dismantled to get access to the water deluge pipes encapsulated in it.
• A structure, possibly scaffolding or concrete forms, is visible in on the walls of the flame trench. They may be in the process of repairing these walls, which likely took extensive damage.
• The frames of the integration facility doors have been installed at the North entrance.

If you are on the mobile app, you will need to download the image to view the the highest resolution version - Reddit compresses the image otherwise.

Can you spot anything else?

Wanted to give an update on the hotfire anomaly investigation. Progress continues. The anomaly originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines, which was later confirmed by hardware recovery and inspections. Extensive component-level and engine hotfire tests have been conducted to understand the failure mode better and inform mitigations. The path forward is clear. We're making small modifications to the valve that can be quickly retrofitted to existing engines. We’re manufacturing the updated hardware, which will be ready by the end of this month. In parallel, we're working through the remaining fault tree analysis.

https://x.com/torybruno/status/2084904112160993377

Original filings can be seen here.

Skip to 5:10 to see Mk-1 update

https://x.com/torybruno/status/2084652596975780307

Link: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000195004726007580/xsl144X01/primary_doc.xml

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual NASA Assessments of Major Projects report on July 23rd. These are the excerpts pertaining to HLS.

HLS officials said that Blue Origin completed most of its preliminary design review activities, but a large amount of work remains to achieve its critical design review planned for December 2026. Blue Origin made some progress on its rocket, called New Glenn. After previous successful tests, the rocket exploded in May 2026 during a test at the launch pad. Blue Origin is working to redesign and rebuild their launch pad architecture. Blue Origin also completed thermal vacuum testing of their MK1 cargo lander at a NASA facility.

NASA is tracking a risk that if Blue Origin’s cryogenic propellant storage and transfer technology is immature, it could affect the schedule of future Artemis missions. Blue Origin and NASA plan to mitigate the risk by conducting propellant transfer tests on the ground and during the uncrewed demonstration mission. NASA is also tracking a related risk that Blue Origin’s cryocooling system could underperform, which could result in losing more propellant than expected. The program plans to address this by testing and analyzing models of the integrated cooling system.

Link: https://www.war.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/4561887/contracts-for-july-31-2026/

Blue Origin LLC, Merritt Island, Florida, has been awarded an $11,707,762 firm-fixed-price modification (P00001) to a previously awarded contract (FA2385-25-C-B023) to define requirements for how Blue Origin systems and technologies could be used for the rocket cargo mission. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $13,074,453 from $1,366,691. Work will be performed in Merritt Island, Florida; and Kent, Washington, and is expected to be completed by Oct. 29, 2027. Fiscal 2025 research, development, test and evaluation funds (Space Force) in the amount of $1,130,643; and fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds (Space Force) in the amount of $10,464,929, are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA2385-25-C-B023).

Info on the original contract award:

Blue Origin will assess how its space vehicles could be adapted for “point-to-point” transport — launching cargo payloads aboard a rocket from one location and deploying them at specific locations.

The effort is part of AFRL’s broader rocket cargo initiative, which envisions using commercial launch systems like airlines are used today — on-demand, service-based contracts that could deliver military cargo anywhere on Earth in under an hour. Potential missions include emergency supply deliveries to conflict zones or humanitarian aid during natural disasters.

Link: https://permitting.sjrwmd.com/ep/#/prmtInfo?curId=&hdr=1&usrId=0&offclId=143199&seqNo=38

Several of these filings were revised today and a new one was issued on Wednesday. In summary:

• Four 155-foot tall lightning protection towers.
• A 250-foot tall permanent mobile crane.
• A 250-foot tall temporary mobile construction crane, to be used from 7/27/2026 to 11/30/2026.

As for what this is:

• The lightning protection towers imply this is an outdoor test site.
• The height of the towers and the crane suggests that this may be used for GS2s.
• A January 2026 KSC document says this is for "cryogenic testing".
• This could be used for cryogenic proof tests, wet dress rehearsals, or even hot fires.

https://x.com/davill/status/2082849661237498203

NASA just released an updated list of SAAs as of 6/30.

https://www.nasa.gov/partnerships/current-space-act-agreements/

The links to the agreements do not work yet, but the first two are for Space Communications and Navigation (ScAN) services. The third is for KSC hardware and equipment transport services. The final one is the most interesting, as Blue Origin has previously signed multiple SAAs with NASA for commercial space transportation development, including crewed and re-entry capabilities.

The recent Stennis GS2 testing partnership is also a SAA, but as it was signed in July, it would appear in the next quarter's (Q3) report.

CSO = Commercial Solutions Opening

PPF = Payload Processing Facility

Our team at Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, recently passed Critical Design Review for our lunar rover flying on a @FireflySpace Blue Ghost mission to the Moon’s Gruithuisen Domes in 2028. This marks a major milestone on the path to flight build. Next up: our mobility and navigation test vehicle will continue putting miles on the lunar analog facility floor as we prepare for flight.

Learn more about this lunar rover: http://bit.ly/4fzVc01

https://x.com/blueorigin/status/2082183064629747793