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New Glenn is a family of launch vehicles developed and operated by the American company Blue Origin. The rocket has two configurations, one operational and one under development, both using a two stage partially reusable design with a seven meter (23 ft) diameter.
Development of New Glenn began prior to 2013 and was officially announced in 2016. The rocket is named in honor of NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. The inaugural vehicle was unveiled on the launch pad in February 2024. Its maiden flight took place on January 16, 2025 from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36. Carrying the Blue Ring Pathfinder, the launch served as the first of several demonstration flights required for certification for the National Security Space Launch program.
As with Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard rocket, New Glenn's first stage is designed for reuse. It lands at sea on a modified barge called Landing Platform Vessel 1. On November 13, 2025, the first stage achieved its first successful landing following New Glenn's second flight. New Glenn is scheduled to launch Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander on robotic missions planned for early 2026 and late 2027.
The original version of New Glenn, or New Glenn 7×2, is a heavy-lift launch vehicle developed and operated by the American company Blue Origin. The first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines, while the second stage uses two BE-3U engines, both designed and built by Blue Origin. It launches from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36, with future missions planned from Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 9. It is one of three operational US heavy-lift rockets, alongside United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur and SpaceX's Falcon Heavy.
A super heavy-lift version called New Glenn 9×4 is in development as of 2025. It features nine BE-4 engines on the first stage, four BE-3U engines on the second stage, and an enlarged payload fairing measuring in diameter.
The booster launch vehicle was projected to lift Blue Origin's biconic Space Vehicle capsule to orbit, carrying astronauts and supplies. After completing its mission in orbit, the Space Vehicle was also conceptually 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 (BE-3U) was conducted on a stand at the John C. Stennis Space Center (NASA test facility) in October 2012. The chamber successfully achieved full thrust of . By early 2018, it was announced that the BE-3U hydrolox engine would power the second stage of the New Glenn.
The vehicle itself, and the high-level specifications, were initially publicly unveiled in September 2016. New Glenn was described as a diameter, two- or three-stage rocket, with the first and second stages being liquid methane/liquid oxygen (methalox) designs using Blue Origin engines. The first stage is planned to be reusable and will VTVL, just like the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle that has been flying suborbitally since the mid-2010s. Although these plans would subsequently change, the 2016 plans called for the first stage to be powered by seven of Blue Origin's BE-4 single-shaft oxygen-rich staged combustion liquid methane/liquid oxygen rocket engines, the second-stage to be powered by a single vacuum-variant of the BE-4 (BE-4U) and the third stage to use a single BE-3 hydrolox engine. In 2016, the first stage was planned to be designed to be reused for up to 100 flights. Blue Origin announced that they intended to launch the rocket from Launch Complex 36 (LC-36), and manufacture the launch vehicles at a new facility to be built on nearby land in Exploration Park. Acceptance testing of the BE-4 engines was also announced to be planned for Florida.
Blue Origin explained in the September 12, 2016, announcement that the rocket would be named New Glenn in honor of the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, with an inaugural flight planned no earlier than 2020. Three weeks of wind tunnel testing of a scale model New Glenn were completed in September 2016 in order to validate the CFD design models of transonic flight and supersonic flight.
In March 2017, Jeff Bezos showed graphics of the New Glenn which had two large strakes at the bottom of the booster. Jeff Bezos' interview at Satellite 2017 (23 min) , circa March 2017 In the September 2017 announcement, Blue Origin announced a much larger payload fairing for New Glenn, this one in diameter, up from in the originally announced design.
By March 2018, the launch vehicle design had changed. It was announced that the New Glenn second stage would now be powered by two vacuum versions of the flight proven BE-3 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine (BE-3U) with a single BE-3U engine for the third stage deep space option. The three-stage booster variant was subsequently cancelled completely in January 2019. By mid-2018, the low-level design was not yet complete and the likelihood of achieving an initial launch by 2020 was being called into question by company engineers, customers, industry experts, and journalists. In October 2018, the Air Force announced Blue Origin was awarded $500 million for development of New Glenn as a potential competitor in future contracts, including Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Phase 2. The October 2018 award was terminated in December 2020 after Blue received $255.5 million of the $500 million.
By February 2019, several launches for New Glenn had been contracted: five for OneWeb, an unspecified amount of Telesat, one each for Eutelsat, mu Space Corp and SKY Perfect JSAT. In February 2019, Blue Origin indicated that no plans to build a reusable second stage were on the company's roadmap. In the event, by July 2021, Blue Origin was again evaluating options for getting to a reusable second-stage design: Project Jarvis.
In August 2020 the Air Force announced that New Glenn was not selected for the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 launch procurement. Due to this, in February 2021 Blue Origin announced that the first flight would slip to no earlier than late 2022.
By December 2020, Blue Origin indicated that the BE-4 engine delivery to United Launch Alliance (ULA) would slip to summer 2021, and ULA disclosed that the first launch of the New Glenn competitor ULA Vulcan Centaur would now be no earlier than 4Q 2021. Blue Origin announced a further schedule slip for the first launch of New Glenn in March 2021 when the company said New Glenn "would not launch until the fourth quarter of 2022, at the earliest".
By 2021, Blue had changed the published reuse specification for New Glenn to a minimum of 25 flights, from the previous design intent of 2016 to support up to 100 flights.
In March 2022, the expected first launch of New Glenn slipped to no earlier than Q4 2023.
In January 2024, the first stage of New Glenn was being transported at Kennedy Space Center from the factory to the launch complex in preparation for a 2024 launch.
In February 2024, a boilerplate of both the first and second stages of New Glenn was erected on launch pad LC-36 for the first time. This test vehicle was not in flight-ready condition and had no functioning engines mounted. In May 2024, New Glenn was rolled out again for additional testing prior to a planned launch later in the year.
Beyond the technical changes indicated, Bezos created a new management structure for the new efforts, walling off "parts of the second-stage development program from the rest of Blue Origin telling its leaders to innovate in an environment unfettered by rigorous management and paperwork processes". Part of the effort is focusing on developing a stainless steel propellant tank and main structure for the second stage rocket, and evaluating it as a part of a solution for a complete second stage system. In August 2021, Blue Origin moved a stainless steel test tank to their Launch Complex 36 facility, where ground pressure testing with cryogenic propellants was to take place. Following the January 2025 successful maiden flight, Ars Technica reported that Project Jarvis had been shelved.
Blue Origin set up another team in 2021 to focus on design approaches that might be used to make a New Glenn second stage reusable, something that was not a design objective for the original second stage planned for New Glenn prior to 2021. , three approaches were being explored: adding to allow the stage to operate as a spaceplane on reentry similar to the Space Shuttle; using an aerospike engine on the second stage that could double as a heat shield on reentry similar to Stoke Space's Nova project; and using high-drag flaps and TPS on one side similar to SpaceX's SpaceX Starship. A decision on which approach to take into full development was slated for late 2021.
In September 2024, Bezos said that Blue Origin was investigating aluminum or stainless steel construction and thermal protection systems for a reusable second stage, but that the expendable second stage was also continuing development and if it proved cheaper, efforts for the former would end.
Preparations began in earnest in late August for what was to be New Glenn's debut launch, carrying the EscaPADE mission consisting of two Photon satellites destined for Mars on a VADR contract from NASA. After consultation with NASA, both parties was decided to forgo the October launch window to avoid "significant cost, schedule, and technical challenges", as well as the risks of removing fuel from the vehicle in the event of a launch delay.
As of September 2024, the debut launch was planned to be a demonstration launch for the United States Space Force's National Security Space Launch program, carrying the Blue Ring Pathfinder. The booster for the flight was named So You're Telling Me There's a Chance, alluding to the difficulty of landing a reusable booster on the first attempt.
Testing continued in October 2024 with successful hot fire tests of the second stage. The completed first stage (GS1) moved to the launchpad on October 30, 2024, ahead of the first flight.
The Flight 1 vehicle was moved to the launchpad on November 20, 2024, for static fire testing. Full wet dress rehearsal occurred on December 19, 2024, and a 24-second static fire was conducted on December 27.
On January 13, 2025, Blue Origin conducted their first launch attempt with the vehicle. After several slips in the countdown, the attempt was scrubbed at approximately 3:05 AM EST (0805 UTC).
On January 16, 2025, 2:03 AM EST (0703 UTC), New Glenn launched for the first time. Blue Origin reached orbit on its first attempt, injecting the GS-2 upper stage and the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload into medium earth orbit. Blue Origin stated that GS-1, the first stage of New Glenn, was lost on descent. Telemetry showed that the booster was traveling at an approximate speed of Mach 5.5 at an altitude of 84,226 ft (25.7 km) before it was deemed lost.
Following the unsuccessful landing, a mishap investigation into the atmospheric reentry of the returning booster was led by Blue Origin, with the involvement and review by the FAA. FAA requires mishap investigation for failed New Glenn landing, Jeff Foust, Space News, January 18, 2025. This investigation was successfully completed by March 31, 2025.
An image released by Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp depicted the New Glenn 9×4 as taller than the Saturn V. While the company did not provide an official timeline, media reports indicated that the variant could enter service as early as 2027. Blue Origin stated that both the 7×2 and 9×4 versions of the rocket are intended to operate concurrently. Media reports also noted that the 9×4 configuration would offer lift capacity approaching that of NASA's Space Launch System Block 1 rocket while retaining a reusable first stage and a larger payload fairing, and could cost less than one-tenth as much per launch.
The first stage (GS1) is designed to be reusable for a minimum of 25 flights, and lands vertically, a technology previously developed by Blue Origin and tested in 2015–2016 on its New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle. The second stage (GS2) shares the same diameter and is "roughly 88 feet (26.8 meters) tall" and is expendable. Both stages use orthogrid Aluminium tanks with welded aluminum domes and common bulkheads. Both stages also use autogenous pressurization.
The first stage is powered by seven BE-4 methane/oxygen engines—designed and manufactured by Blue Origin—producing of liftoff thrust. Its liquid oxygen propellant tank has a volume of while the fuel tank can store almost of liquid methane. The second stage is powered by two BE-3U vacuum optimized engines, also designed and manufactured by Blue Origin, using hydrogen/oxygen as propellants.
The company stated in 2019 that the planned full operational payload capacity of the two-stage version of New Glenn would be to GTO and to a 51.6° inclined LEO, though the initial operating capability could be somewhat lower. , dual-satellite launches were intended to be offered after the first five flights.
Launches of New Glenn are 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. , Blue Origin and the U.S. Space Force plan to give New Glenn polar orbit capabilities through building a West Coast launch facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, to be called Space Launch Complex 9 (SLC-9).
The first stage boosters of New Glenn are intended to be reusable, and were originally intended to be recovered downrange on the Atlantic Ocean via their landing platform ship Jacklyn, which would have acted as a floating movable landing platform. The hydrodynamically stabilized ship would have increased the likelihood of successful recovery in Sea state. That ship was scrapped, and a new landing barge named Landing Platform Vessel 1, also nicknamed Jacklyn, was commissioned and became operational in 2024.
Tooling and equipment for the factory began to be ordered and built in 2015. In July 2018, the build of the largest device, a tall × long × wide Ingersoll "Mongoose" Cryotank and Payload fairing fabrication machine, was completed after a three-year design/build process. It was to be installed in the Florida facility in Exploration Park later in 2018. , Blue Origin had invested over $1 billion in its Florida manufacturing facility and launch site, and stated it intended to spend much more going forward.
In January 2019, Telesat signed a multi-launch contract "to launch satellites for its future low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation on multiple New Glenn missions" and thus is Blue Origin's fifth customer.
In 2022, Amazon announced that it had contracted 12 flights of New Glenn, with an option for 15 more, for deployment of the Kuiper Systems.
In February 2023, NASA announced that it had selected Blue Origin to launch the EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars. In May 2024, it was announced the spacecraft had reached substantial completion in preparation for launch later in the year; however NASA subsequently moved the ESCAPADE payload from the first flight of New Glenn to a later flight of the rocket.
In November 2024, AST SpaceMobile selected Blue Origin to launch some of its Block 2 satellites.
In April 2025, Space Systems Command awarded a National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 contract to Blue Origin. As the third provider, Blue Origin is projected to be awarded 7 flights, with an anticipated value of $2.4 billion.
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