section_path: History/Development/"Jarvis" reusable upper stage
section_name: "Jarvis" reusable upper stage
paragraph_text: "Jarvis" reusable upper stage
  
  Information became public in July 2021 that Blue Origin had begun a "project to develop a fully reusable upper stage for New Glenn", under the name "Project Jarvis", just as SpaceX is aiming to do with their Starship second stage. If Blue Origin is able to realize such a second stage design and bring it into operational use, New Glenn would become a fully-reusable launch vehicle and would benefit from a substantial reduction in cost per launch.
  
  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 its leaders to innovate in an environment unfettered by rigorous management and paperwork processes". However, no indication of the budget allowed to the development of this reusable second-stage was released to the public.
  
  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 rolled a stainless steel test tank to their Launch Complex 36 facility, on which ground pressure testing with cryogenic propellants was to take place.
  
  In addition to the Jarvis team working on a new second stage tank design, 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. As of August 2021, three approaches are being explored: adding wings to allow the stage to operate as a spaceplane on reentry; using an aerospike engine on the second stage that could double as a heat shield on reentry; and an approach similar to SpaceX's Starship concept using high- drag flaps in combination with propulsive deceleration. A decision on which approach to take into full development was slated for late 2021.