New Glenn is a heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the American company Blue Origin. The rocket features a partially reusable, two-stage design with a diameter of 7 meters (23 ft). The first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines, while the second stage relies on two BE-3U engines, all designed and built in-house by Blue Origin. The company stated in 2019 that the planned full operational payload capacity of the two-stage version of New Glenn would be 13,000 kg (29,000 lb) to GTO and 45,000 kg (99,000 lb) to a 51.6° inclined LEO, though the initial operating capability could be somewhat lower. Similar to Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket, used for space tourism, the New Glenn’s first stage was designed to be reusable, landing on a special barge. In 2021, the company launched Project Jarvis, an initiative aimed at making the second stage reusable as well. Launches of the New Glenn rocket are planned to be made from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, with Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) leased to Blue Origin in 2015 in support of the New Glenn program. As of 2023, Blue Origin and the U.S. Space Force also plan to build a West Coast launch facility for the New Glenn at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, to be called Space Launch Complex 9 (SLC-9).
New Glenn
Name: | New Glenn | |
Manufacturer: | Blue Origin | |
Height: | 98 m / 322 ft | |
Diameter: | 7 m / 23 ft | |
Mass: | 1,815 ton / 3,630,000 lb | |
Capacity: |
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Stages: | 2 | |
Engines first stage: | 7 x BE-4 (LOX/CH4) | |
Engines second stage: | 2 x BE-3U (LH2/LOX) | |
Cost per launch: | TBA | |
Launch sites: |
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First launch: | 16/01/2025 | |
Launches: |
New Glenn launch statistics
Images: Blue Origin