Blue Origin is closing out the year in style. Jeff Bezos’ private space company launched its first fully operational orbital New Glenn mission earlier this month. Now, it’s revealed its Mark 1 (MK1) lunar lander.
Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and owner, shared a first look image of MK1 in an X post on Friday. Impressively, the lander is scheduled to fly to the Moon in early 2026. Once there, the uncrewed lander will touch down near the Shackleton crater at the Moon’s south pole.
Blue Origin famously filed a lawsuit against NASA after the space agency chose SpaceX’s Starship as its lunar lander. That lawsuit was struck down. Now, the tables seem to have turned. Blue Origin’s progress puts pressure on SpaceX, as the design of its own modified Starship lunar lander causes delays to NASA’s Artemis program.
MK1 is designed to launch aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. It can carry a payload of up to 3.3 tons (3 metric tons) to the lunar surface. According to Bezos, the company will soon conduct “fully integrated checkout tests” of MK1 to prepare for the launch of Blue Moon Pathfinder in Q1 2026.
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