section_path: Launch vehicles/New Glenn
section_name: New Glenn
paragraph_text: New Glenn
  
  New Glenn is a heavy-lift launch vehicle, first successfully launched in January 2025. The initial launch date had been set back by numerous delays. Named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, design work on the vehicle began in early 2012. Illustrations of the vehicle, and the high-level specifications, were initially publicly unveiled in September 2016. The full vehicle was first unveiled on a launch pad on February 21, 2024. The rocket has a diameter of 7 meters (23 ft), and its first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines. The fairing is claimed to have twice the payload volume of "any commercial launch system" and to be the biggest payload fairing in the world.
  
  Like the New Shepard, New Glenn's first stage is also designed to be reusable. In 2021, the company initiated conceptual design work on approaches to potentially make the second stage reusable as well, with the project codenamed " Project Jarvis ".
  
  NASA announced on February 9, 2023, that it had selected the New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle for the launch of two Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) spacecraft. The New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle will launch ESCAPADE in Q2 of 2025 with the ESCAPADE spacecraft entering Mars 's orbit approximately one year after launch.
  
  In 2024, Blue Origin received funding from the USSF to assess New Glenn's ability to launch national security payloads. On January 16, 2025, Blue Origin achieved its first successful launch of New Glenn from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station 's Launch Complex 36 at 02:03 Eastern Time The mission's primary objective was to deploy the Blue Ring Pathfinder test satellite, which was successfully placed into orbit.