Blue Origin Announces New Glenn Rocket
Following up the impressive reuse of its stout New Shepard rocket, Blue Origin has announced their first orbital-class rocket, dubed New Glenn.
Blue Origin (and Amazon) CEO Jeff Bezos reiterated his company’s philosophy with, “deliberate and methodical wins the day, and [we] do things quickest by never skipping steps. This step-by-step approach is a powerful enabler of boldness and a critical ingredient in achieving the audacious…We’re excited to give you a preview of our next step. One we’ve been working on for four years. Meet New Glenn”
Just like it’s baby brother, New Glenn features the ability to “Launch, Land and Repeat” achieving the holy grail of launch vehicles, rapid reusability at scale. Another facet of note is the sheer size of the vehicle. Relative to the largest rocket in service, the Delta IV Heavy, and the largest rocket built by humans, the Saturn V, the New Glenn will be the largest launch vehicle built since the ’60s and the largest booster to achieve reuse.
New Glenn will achieve 3.85 million pounds of thrust with its seven BE-4 engines by burning liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen. Bezos and Blue Origin are confident that the New Glenn will fly before the close of this decade, giving the team three years and some change to test, build, and fly this monster.
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