Unlike their New Shepard rocket, which is only capable of up-and-down suborbital launches, New Glenn will be the company’s first rocket capable of bringing payloads and humans into orbit around the Earth.
Similar to New Shepard, New Glenn is designed
Unlike their New Shepard rocket, which is only capable of up-and-down suborbital launches, New Glenn will be the company’s first rocket capable of bringing payloads and humans into orbit around the Earth.
Similar to New Shepard, New Glenn is designed with a recoverable booster and is intended to be reused, marking an exciting development in the space industry. There are currently no reusable heavy-lift rockets operational today (although SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is expected to take its first flight later this year).
The reveal of New Glenn was much anticipated. Back in June, Blue Origin broke ground on a new facility in Cape Canaveral specifically to develop orbital rockets. The site, which is about 75% of the size of SpaceX’s rocket facility in California, will be large enough to accommodate manufacturing, processing, integration, and testing of New Glenn.
Power To Go Orbital
New Glenn will make use of seven BE-4 engines burning liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen. The second stage of the rocket will use a single vacuum-optimized BE-4 engine.
Using the same booster, New Glenn could also be configured as a 3-stage rocket, capable of bringing payloads farther than low-Earth-orbit. The third stage would use a single vacuum-optimized BE-3 engine burning liqui