New Glenn

New Glenn

New Glenn as presented in September 2016
Function	Reusable orbital launcher
Manufacturer	Blue Origin
Country of origin	United States
Size
Height	2 stage: 82 m (270 ft) 3 stage: 95 m (313 ft)
Diameter	7 m (23 ft)
Stages	2 or 3
Capacity
Payload to LEO	45,000 kg (99,000 lb)
Payload to GTO	13,000 kg (29,000 lb)
Associated rockets
Comparable	Space Launch System Falcon Heavy
Launch history
Status	In development
Launch sites	Cape Canaveral LC-36
First stage
Diameter	7 m (23 ft)
Engines	7 × BE-4
Thrust	17.1 MN (3,850,000 lbf)
Fuel	Methane / LOX
Second stage
Diameter	7 m (23 ft)
Engines	BE-4 Vacuum
Thrust	2.4 MN (550,000 lbf)
Fuel	Methane / LOX
Third stage
Diameter	7 m (23 ft)
Engines	BE-3U
Thrust	490 kN (110,000 lbf)
Fuel	H2 / LOX

The New Glenn is a privately funded orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin. It is expected to make its initial test launch prior to 2020. Design work on the vehicle began in 2012. The high-level specifications for the vehicle were publicly announced in September 2016. New Glenn is described as a 7-meter-diameter (23 ft), two- or three-stage rocket. Its first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines that are also being designed and manufactured by Blue Origin. Like the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle that preceded it, the New Glenn's first stage is designed to be reusable.

After initiating the development of an orbital rocket system prior to 2012, Blue Origin publicly announced the existence of their new orbital launch vehicle in September 2015. In January 2016, Blue Origin indicated that the new rocket would be many times larger than New Shepard even though it would be the smallest of the family of Blue Origin orbital vehicles. Blue Origin publicly released the high-level design of the vehicle—and announced the name New Glenn—in September 2016.

Blue Origin began developing systems for orbital human spacecraft prior to 2012. A reusable first-stage booster was projected to fly a suborbital trajectory, taking off vertically like the booster stage of a conventional multistage rocket. Following stage separation, the upper stage would continue to propel astronauts to orbit while the first-stage booster would descend to perform a powered vertical landing similar to the New Shepard suborbital vehicle. The first-stage booster was to be refueled and launched again, allowing improved reliability and with the goal of lowering the cost of human access to space.

The booster rocket was projected to loft Blue Origin's biconic Space Vehicle capsule to orbit, carrying astronauts and supplies. After completing its mission in orbit, the Space Vehicle was designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere and land under parachutes on land, to be reused on future missions.

Engine testing for the (then named) Reusable Booster System (RBS) launch vehicle began in 2012. A full-power test of the thrust chamber for Blue Origin BE-3 liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen upper-stage rocket engine was conducted at a NASA test facility in October 2012. The chamber successfully achieved full thrust of 100,000 pounds-force (about 440 kN).