Blue Origin has successfully tested the upper stage of its first New Glenn rocket, but that’s on schedule, confirming NASA’s decision not to use it to launch a mission to Mars in mid-October. Blue Origin said it tested the second stage of New Glenn at Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral on Sept. 23. The BE-3U’s two upper stage engines were fired up for 15 seconds during the test.

The test run, which tested interactions between the vehicle’s various systems and ground equipment, “marked the first time we operated the vehicle as an integrated system,” the company said. It also provided a practice opportunity for the launch management team.

The test was one of the major milestones ahead of Blue Origin’s first launch of New Glenn, called NG-1. That mission was initially intended to be a follow-on to NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to send a pair of small satellites to Mars. That called for a narrow launch window between Oct. 13-21 of this year.

However, NASA announced on September 6 that it would not proceed with that launch schedule, deciding to refuel the spacecraft. The agency said it aimed to “avoid the significant cost, schedule, and technical challenges” of removing fuel from the spacecraft if the launch were to be delayed later. Instead, Blue Origin will use the NG-1 mission to test technology for its Blue Ring orbiter. That launch is scheduled for November.

The timing of the upper stage test appears to confirm NASA’s decision not to proceed with ESCAPADE’s October launch. When NASA announced its decision, a source from the company said Blue Origin was preparing to test the upper stage with a static fire early next week, with no plans to slow down or significantly alter launch preparations.

That program is closed. “We’re going to do hot fire testing on the upper stages this week,” Lars Hoffman, Blue Origin’s vice president of public sales, said during a panel discussion at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aerospace Summit on Sept. 11, but that didn’t happen until almost two weeks later.

The focus now is on the booster. Speaking at World Space Business Week on September 16, Jarrett Jones, senior vice president of Blue Origin New Glenn, said the company is working to install seven BE-4 engines on the stage. “We will be sending the booster to the field by the end of the month,” he said, where it will also undergo static fire tests.

“We will have a rocket ready to launch next month,” he said. “We are launching in 2024,” he said, later confirming the launch in November.

Neither Blue Origin nor NASA has provided many details about the rescheduling of the ESCAPADE mission. NASA said in a Sept. 6 announcement that the next opportunity to launch the mission would be in the spring of 2025. That would be outside the normal launch windows for Mars missions, which are scheduled to occur approximately every two years, with the next mission scheduled for late 2026.

“We’ll be working closely with them to find the exact launch window to launch this ESCAPADE spacecraft to Mars,” Hoffman said, referring to NASA. “When you have a New Glenn vehicle with these capabilities, it opens up a little bit more flexibility in terms of how we can support a launch like this.”

“The ESCAPADE team is still exploring multiple mission design options with different arrival dates, and the specifics of any launch option depend on the final mission design,” NASA spokeswoman Sarah Fraser told SpaceNews shortly after NASA announced the mission’s launch delay. “In general, launches outside the direct Mars window, including a potential launch in spring 2025, may require longer cruise times for the spacecraft to get to the Red Planet.”