New Glenn

📷 U.S. Space Force 45SW by Senior Airman Samuel Becker / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

New Glenn is Blue Origin’s heavy-lift orbital rocket, named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. It stands 98 m tall with an unusually wide 7 m diameter, lifts off on about 17,100 kN of thrust from seven methane-fueled BE-4 engines, and is designed to carry 45,000 kg to low Earth orbit. On its very first flight, on 16 January 2025, it reached orbit successfully — a rare feat for any rocket’s debut.

The first stage is built for reuse from day one, rated for 25 flights and designed to land on a ship at sea. With its second launch, in November 2025, Blue Origin became only the second company ever to land an orbital-class booster propulsively.

Development History

Blue Origin announced New Glenn in 2016, but the company — founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000 — had been building toward an orbital rocket far longer, maturing engines and flying its small suborbital New Shepard along the way. The BE-4 engine took years to perfect, and it actually reached space first on someone else’s rocket: United Launch Alliance buys it for the Vulcan, which debuted in January 2024.

After long delays from an original 2020 target, the NG-1 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36 on 16 January 2025, carrying a Blue Ring Pathfinder technology demonstrator to orbit. The booster was lost during its descent to the landing ship, but the primary mission succeeded on the first try.

The second flight, NG-2 in November 2025, was the breakthrough: it sent NASA’s twin ESCAPADE probes on the first leg of their journey toward Mars, and the booster — nicknamed Never Tell Me the Odds — landed intact on the recovery ship Jacklyn in the Atlantic.

Design & Capabilities

The first stage burns liquefied natural gas, essentially methane, with liquid oxygen in seven BE-4 engines of roughly 2,400 kN each. The second stage switches to hydrogen and oxygen in two vacuum-optimized BE-3U engines, a high-efficiency combination suited to demanding, high-energy orbits. Aerodynamic strakes along the booster help it steer during the glide back toward its landing ship.

New Glenn’s calling card is volume. The 7 m fairing offers roughly double the usable space of the standard 5 m class — room for entire batches of large satellites, or spacecraft simply too bulky for other rockets. Blue Origin quotes 45,000 kg to low Earth orbit and about 13,600 kg to geostationary transfer orbit, with the booster recovered downrange at sea rather than expended. Each booster is rated for 25 flights, and the second stage, expended for now, is a candidate for future reuse studies.

Notable Missions

NG-1 in January 2025 carried the Blue Ring Pathfinder, testing systems for a future maneuverable space tug, and put New Glenn in the small club of rockets that reached orbit on their first attempt. NG-2 in November 2025 launched ESCAPADE, a pair of small NASA orbiters that will study how the solar wind strips away Mars’s atmosphere, and stuck the first booster landing.

The manifest ahead is packed: dozens of launches for Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet constellation, Blue Origin’s own Blue Moon landers supporting NASA’s Artemis program, and commercial and national-security payloads drawn to that oversized fairing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does New Glenn compare to Falcon 9?

It is a class larger: 98 m tall versus 70 m, twice the fairing diameter, and 45,000 kg to low Earth orbit versus 22,800 kg for a fully expendable Falcon 9. Like Falcon 9 it lands its first stage on a ship at sea, but New Glenn was designed around reuse from the very beginning.

What fuels New Glenn?

The seven BE-4 first-stage engines burn liquefied natural gas — essentially methane — with liquid oxygen, a clean-burning choice that simplifies reuse. The two BE-3U second-stage engines burn hydrogen for high efficiency. The BE-4 pulls double duty in the industry: United Launch Alliance uses the same engine on its Vulcan rocket’s first stage.

Has New Glenn landed a booster?

Yes. The first attempt in January 2025 failed when the booster was lost during descent, but on the second flight, in November 2025, the stage touched down intact on the ship Jacklyn in the Atlantic — making Blue Origin the second company after SpaceX to land an orbital-class booster.

What will New Glenn launch?

Big things in bulk: batches of Amazon Kuiper internet satellites, Blue Moon landers bound for the lunar surface, NASA science missions like ESCAPADE, and large commercial and government payloads. Its 7 m fairing and 45,000 kg capacity target exactly the cargo that struggles to fit on today’s 5 m class rockets.