Delays are common in spaceflight and Blue Origin’s scrubbing of the first New Glenn launch reinforces the fact that Space is indeed hard. Nevertheless, what is this new rocket that is coming to market backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos?
New Glenn is the second rocket system developed by Blue Origin with the suborbital New Shepard being the first. Blue Origin’s New Glenn is a two-stage, partially reusable, launch vehicle designed to carry payloads to multiple orbits. The rocket uses liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen as its propellant. There was to be an optional third stage but this has since been scrapped.
The first stage, powered by seven BE-4 engines, produces a combined 17.1 MN of thrust. Designed for reusability, it performs a vertical landing on a barge after launch, aiming for 100 flights per vehicle. In contrast, the second stage, initially planned for a single BE-4U engine but later switched to two BE-3U engines for faster development, is not reusable. The BE-3U, optimized for vacuum operation, uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants and is based on the New Shepard’s BE-3 engine.
While Blue Origin will compete with SpaceX among other launch providers, its development process is very different. Blue Origin’s motto, “Gradatim Ferociter” (Latin for “step by step, ferociously”), and its turtle mascot shed light on the speed of its development process. The company’s methodical approach has perhaps led to slower development times when compared to SpaceX; however, New Glenn, with its first launch in sight is indeed launching at the same time as Elon Musk’s Starship.
Blue Origin already has customers for its New Glenn with OneWeb and Amazon’s own Kuiper constellation. NASA is also launching its EscaPADE mission on New Glenn. Unlike Starship, only the first stage of New Glenn is reusable; however, a reusable second stage is reportedly in the works. New Glenn will join an ever-growing list of launch vehicles coming to market. With orders for satellites steady, New Glenn will likely have no issues finding payloads to launch.
Carter Palmer has long held a keen interest in military matters and aviation. As a FI's space systems analyst he is responsible for updating the reports and analyses within the Space Systems Forecast – Launch Vehicles & Manned Platforms and Space Systems Forecast – Satellites & Spacecraft products.
