What we know so far about New Glenn

Over the last few moths, Blue Origin has ramped up testing of its rocket, New Glenn as its planned launch date creeps ever closer.

Blue Origin, the aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company founded by Jeff Bezos, announced another major milestone in their testing journey to develop their reusable rocket, New Glenn. The announcement was made via a post on their official X account on July 17th 2024.

Blue Origin plans that the first stage of the rocket will last for a minimum of 25 flights and plans to operate “like a commercial airliner” but with cleaner fuel to significantly cut costs and waste. Blue Origin’s focus on reusability is evident and the testing of components such as these deployable legs. The 6 landing legs are hydraulically actuated and will support and secure the first stage on the landing barge named “Landing Platform Vessel 1”.

What we know so far…

New Glenn, named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, is being designed with the “safety and redundancy”necessary for human spaceflight. New Glenn is being designed with commercial satellites and humans as the payload in mind, challenging Space X’s Falcon 9 and Superheavy rockets.

The first stage is powered by 7 reusable BE-4 engines burning LOX and liquified natural gas (LNG) -which is higher preforming and cleaner burning than most Kerosene burning engines. This allows for higher fuel efficiency and improving engine reusability. Each BE-4 engine will be producing 2,450kN of thrust.

The second stage will be powered by 2 restartable BE-3U engines which generate 712kN of thrust (in a vacuum) each. Blue Origin have commented that, “Coupled with higher thrust and performance, the engine’s in-space restart capabilities promote versatility for New Glenn’s second stage.” They have also said that these engines will reflect the over a decade of experience the company has through the New Shepard launches flown with the LOX/cryogenic LH2 fuelled engines to allow for optimistation for the vacuum of space so that they can “meet the diverse demands of our customers, including direct payload injection to high-energy orbits.”

The third stage is powered by a single BE-3U (LOX and LH2), optimised to fly in a vacuum. It was chosen due to its high thrust and specific impulse capabilities to enable the upper stage to acomplish a wide variety of missions.

With 2 stages the rocket will be 270ft tall with a 7m fairing and its 3 stage variant will be 313ft tall. With 3 stages the rocket should be able to fly beyond LEO missions. Blue Origin have also said that New Glenn “can carry more than 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) and 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO).”

There is also 4 actuated aerodynamic control fins for attitude adjustment for the landing and descent of the first stage as well as Strakes which are wing-like and provide lift and cross-range for first stage descent.

Unlike SpaceX’s “Fail fast, learn fast” iterative design approach, Blue Origin have said that they, “believe “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” In the long run, deliberate and methodical wins the day, and you do things quickest by never skipping steps. This step-by-step approach is a powerful enabler of boldness and a critical ingredient in achieving the audacious.”

The first launch is expected to be no earlier than September 29th 2024 and will be carrying NASA’s EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars.