Blue Origin New Glenn: Everything We Know About the Next Heavy-Lift Rocket

After more than a decade of development, Blue Origin's New Glenn has entered the orbital launch market as one of the most anticipated heavy-lift vehicles in modern spaceflight. Named after astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, New Glenn represents Blue Origin's transition from suborbital tourism (New Shepard) to a serious orbital launch competitor capable of serving commercial, civil, and national security missions.

New Glenn's debut has been closely watched not just for its technical ambitions but for its strategic implications. Blue Origin holds a multi-billion-dollar contract with Amazon to launch Project Kuiper (now Amazon Leo) broadband satellites, making New Glenn critical infrastructure for one of the most ambitious constellation deployments since Starlink. Whether New Glenn can deliver on its promises will shape the competitive landscape of heavy-lift launch for years to come.

Vehicle Specifications

New Glenn is a two-stage, partially reusable launch vehicle standing approximately 98 meters (322 feet) tall with a 7-meter (23-foot) diameter fairing, the largest payload fairing of any operational rocket. That fairing diameter is a significant competitive advantage for deploying large satellites and multi-satellite stacks without the volume constraints imposed by smaller vehicles.

First Stage

The first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines, each producing approximately 2,400 kN (550,000 lbf) of thrust at sea level, for a combined liftoff thrust of roughly 16,800 kN (3.85 million lbf). The BE-4 burns liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LOX), an oxidizer-rich staged combustion cycle that delivers high performance while using propellants that are cleaner, cheaper, and easier to handle than RP-1 kerosene.

The first stage is designed for reuse, landing on a ship at sea similar to SpaceX's drone ship recovery. Blue Origin has targeted 25 flights per booster, though the initial flights will focus on proving the landing system before ramping up reuse cadence. The reusable first stage is the primary mechanism for reducing per-flight costs over time.

Second Stage

The second stage uses two BE-3U engines burning liquid hydrogen (LH2) and LOX. The high specific impulse of hydrogen propulsion (∼450 seconds) gives New Glenn strong performance for high-energy orbits, including GTO and direct-to-GEO missions. The second stage is expendable: Blue Origin has discussed future plans for second-stage reuse but has not committed to a timeline.

Payload Capacity

New Glenn's published payload specifications are competitive with the upper tier of operational launch vehicles:

• LEO: ~45 metric tons (with booster recovery)
• GTO: ~13 metric tons (with booster recovery)
• Expendable mode: Higher capacities achievable when first stage is not recovered, though Blue Origin has not published specific expendable numbers

These numbers place New Glenn in the same performance class as SpaceX Falcon Heavy (recoverable configuration) and ULA Vulcan Centaur. The 7-meter fairing, however, gives New Glenn a volume advantage that is particularly relevant for large commercial satellites and multi-manifest Kuiper deployments.

The BE-4 Engine

The BE-4 is arguably the most important engine development program in the U.S. launch industry since SpaceX's Merlin. Beyond powering New Glenn, the BE-4 is the first stage engine for ULA's Vulcan Centaur, making it a dual-customer engine with enormous production volume requirements.

Key BE-4 characteristics:

• Propellants: Liquid natural gas (methane) / liquid oxygen
• Cycle: Oxidizer-rich staged combustion
• Thrust: ~2,400 kN (550,000 lbf) sea level
• Chamber pressure: ~134 bar
• Specific impulse: ~310s sea level, ~340s vacuum

The BE-4 development was notably lengthy. Blue Origin began development around 2011, and the engine's qualification timeline extended well beyond initial projections. ULA's Vulcan Centaur program was delayed multiple times waiting for flight-qualified BE-4 deliveries. The engine has now accumulated substantial test time and flight heritage through both Vulcan and New Glenn operations.

First Flight and Operational Status

New Glenn's path to first flight was longer than Blue Origin initially projected. The vehicle was announced in 2016 with a target first launch in 2020, but development complexities, engine qualification timelines, and the parallel demands of the BE-4 production program for ULA pushed the schedule. New Glenn's inaugural flight launched from LC-36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in early 2025.

The first flight successfully reached orbit, though the first-stage booster landing attempt was not successful, a result that mirrors SpaceX's early Falcon 9 landing attempts. Blue Origin characterized the first flight as a success given that the primary objective of reaching orbit and deploying the payload was achieved. Subsequent flights have continued to refine the landing system.

Launch cadence is the key metric to watch. SpaceX launches Falcon 9 at a rate exceeding 100 flights per year. Blue Origin's near-term production and pad turnaround capabilities will determine whether New Glenn can achieve the flight rates needed to serve both Kuiper and commercial/government customers.

Amazon Kuiper Contract

Blue Origin's most significant customer is Amazon's Project Kuiper, which plans to deploy a constellation of 3,236 broadband satellites in LEO. Amazon has contracted New Glenn for a substantial share of Kuiper launches, alongside additional capacity from ULA's Vulcan Centaur and SpaceX's Falcon 9.

The Kuiper contract provides New Glenn with a guaranteed launch manifest that de-risks the vehicle's business case and funds production ramp-up. However, it also creates schedule pressure: the FCC has imposed deployment milestones requiring Amazon to launch half its constellation by mid-2026 and the full constellation by mid-2029. If New Glenn cannot maintain launch cadence, Amazon may shift additional launches to alternative providers.

This dynamic makes New Glenn's operational reliability and turnaround time strategically important. Each delay in New Glenn cadence is a potential shift of market share to SpaceX or ULA.

Competitive Landscape

New Glenn enters a competitive heavy-lift market with two established alternatives:

SpaceX Falcon Heavy

Falcon Heavy offers proven performance (64 metric tons to LEO expendable, ~27 metric tons recoverable), extensive flight heritage, competitive pricing ($97M list price), and the advantage of SpaceX's unmatched launch cadence. Falcon Heavy's 5.2-meter fairing is smaller than New Glenn's 7-meter fairing, but SpaceX is developing a wider fairing option. Long-term, Starship may supersede both Falcon Heavy and New Glenn in payload capacity.

ULA Vulcan Centaur

Vulcan Centaur shares the BE-4 first-stage engine with New Glenn but pairs it with the high-performance Centaur V upper stage. Vulcan targets roughly the same payload class for GTO missions and is certified for national security payloads. ULA's Atlas and Delta heritage gives it deep institutional relationships with the U.S. Space Force and intelligence community.

New Glenn's differentiators are its larger fairing volume, its reusable first stage (Vulcan's first stage is expendable, though ULA has discussed SMART booster engine recovery), and its integration with the broader Blue Origin ecosystem including the Blue Ring orbital transfer vehicle and Blue Moon lunar lander.

Beyond Kuiper: The Broader Market

While Kuiper provides a launch manifest floor, Blue Origin is pursuing a broader customer base:

• National security launches: Blue Origin is competing for NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 contracts, which would certify New Glenn for the most demanding national security payloads.
• NASA missions: New Glenn is a candidate for NASA science and exploration missions, and it is the launcher for Blue Origin's Blue Moon lunar landers.
• Commercial GEO satellites: The 7-meter fairing and strong GTO performance make New Glenn attractive for next-generation large GEO communications satellites.
• Rideshare and multi-manifest: The large fairing volume enables multi-satellite deployments for constellation operators beyond Kuiper.

What to Watch

New Glenn's trajectory over the next 12-18 months will be defined by several key milestones:

1. Booster reuse demonstration: Successfully landing and reflying a first stage will validate the economic model and prove the reuse architecture.
2. Launch cadence: Moving from inaugural flights to a sustainable monthly (or better) launch rate is essential for serving the Kuiper manifest.
3. NSSL certification: Winning national security launch certification would open a high-value, long-duration government customer base.
4. BE-4 production scaling: Engine production must support both New Glenn (7 engines per flight) and ULA Vulcan (2 engines per flight) without becoming a bottleneck.

New Glenn is the most significant new orbital-class launch vehicle to enter service since Falcon 9. Its success or failure will determine whether Blue Origin becomes a peer competitor to SpaceX or remains a niche player in the orbital launch market.

Track New Glenn launches, compare specifications, and monitor the competitive launch vehicle landscape with SpaceNexus Launch Vehicles.