Blue Origin starts launch pad rebuild, targets New Glenn rocket return in 2026

PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) - Reconstruction has begun at Blue Origin's Florida launch pad after a New ‌Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test ‌in May, CEO Dave Limp said on Wednesday, with launches expected ​to resume before the end of this year.

• Limp was speaking alongside Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the VivaTech conference in Paris.

• An uncrewed ‌New Glenn rocket ⁠exploded on May 28 during an engine-firing test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ⁠in Florida.

• No injuries were reported.

• "It was a gut punch for the whole team. But what we've learned ​since then ​is we got really ​lucky," Bezos said.

• Some ‌of the "long lead items" on the launch infrastructure, including the propellant tank farm, liquid hydrogen, liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen, were preserved, he added.

• Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told CNBC that ‌damage to New Glenn will ​take some "serious time" to repair.

• ​Limp said Blue ​Origin had brought in crews working around ‌the clock to clear debris ​from the ​pad, and that reconstruction began on Tuesday.

• He also said Blue Origin's uncrewed Mark 1 lunar lander ​mission is ‌expected to fly early next year.

(Reporting by Toby ​Sterling and Gianluca Lo Nostro. Editing by ​Tomasz Janowski and Mark Potter)