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Two next-generation heavy-lift vehicles, side by side. SpaceX calls Starship the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, designed to be fully reusable and to fly to the Moon and Mars. Blue Origin's New Glenn is a more conventionally sized heavy-lifter with a reusable first stage and a 7-meter fairing. Figures are sourced below and checked on 11 Oct 2026.
Where each rocket stands today (recent flights, the LC-36 rebuild, the next milestones) is on Starship vs New Glenn: status.
| Metric | SpaceX Starship | Blue Origin New Glenn |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | SpaceX | Blue Origin |
| Vehicle Class | Super heavy-lift (SpaceX: the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed) | Heavy-lift |
| Total Height | 124 m (407 ft) | 98 m (more than 320 ft) |
| Diameter | 9 m (29.5 ft) | 7 m |
| Stages | 2 (Super Heavy booster + Starship upper stage) | 2 (1st stage booster + 2nd stage upper stage) |
| First Stage Engines | 33 Raptor (LOX/CH4); Raptor 3 on the V3 vehicles flying since May 2026 | 7 BE-4 (LOX/LNG) |
| Second Stage Engines | 6 Raptor (sea-level and vacuum versions) | 2 BE-3U (LOX/LH2) |
| First Stage Thrust | About 18 million lbf (about 80 MN) at liftoff, V3 booster | About 17,000 kN (about 3.8 million lbf) at sea level |
| Payload to LEO | 100+ t fully reusable (SpaceX design figure; not yet demonstrated) | 45,000 kg |
| Payload to GTO | No figure published by SpaceX | More than 13,000 kg |
| Payload Bay / Fairing | No separate fairing: payloads ride inside the 9 m upper stage | 7 m fairing |
| Reusability | Both stages designed for full reuse; boosters caught by the tower on earlier test flights (first in Oct 2024); the ship returned from orbit to a Pacific splashdown on Flight 14 but has not been caught or reflown | First stage reusable (lands on the ship Jacklyn at sea; one booster has flown twice); 2nd stage expendable |
| Propellant | LOX / liquid methane (both stages) | LOX / LNG (1st stage); LOX / LH2 (2nd stage) |
| First Orbital Flight | Flight 14 (Sep 28, 2026): reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites; the 13 test flights before it (from Apr 2023) were suborbital | NG-1 (Jan 16, 2025): reached orbit; booster lost during descent |
| Launch Price | No published price; Musk has stated a goal of under $10M per flight (Feb 2022) | No published price |
| Customers (booked or flown) | SpaceX (Starlink V3), NASA (Artemis lunar lander) | NASA (ESCAPADE, launched Nov 2025), Amazon Leo (12 launches booked plus options for 15, Apr 2022), US Space Force (NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2, Apr 2025) |
| Artemis Role | Starship HLS: one of NASA's two crewed lunar landers; Artemis III (2027) is now a low Earth orbit rendezvous and docking test | Blue Moon: NASA's second crewed lunar lander (HLS contract May 2023, for Artemis V; $3.4B award value per NASA, about $3.1B potential value as of Dec 2025 per NASA's Inspector General, Mar 2026) |
| Manufacturing Location | Starbase, TX | Florida's Space Coast |
Starship and New Glenn are often compared, but they are built for different primary missions. SpaceX designed Starship to carry more than 100 metric tons to orbit in a fully reusable configuration, with in-space refueling planned for Moon and Mars missions. It is still in flight testing: its first 13 flights were suborbital, and on Flight 14, September 28, 2026, it reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites. The V3 Super Heavy booster carries 33 Raptor 3 engines producing about 18 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. SpaceX first caught a returning booster with the launch tower in October 2024, on Flight 5.
New Glenn is a heavy-lift vehicle with a 7-meter fairing that can deliver 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit. The first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines burning liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen, designed for up to 25 missions with propulsive landing on a ship at sea. The second stage uses two hydrogen-fueled BE-3U engines. New Glenn's first flight, NG-1 on January 16, 2025, reached orbit, but the booster was lost during descent; the booster from NG-2 landed, and on NG-3 it flew again and landed a second time.
Amazon booked 12 New Glenn launches, with options for up to 15 more, in April 2022 to deploy its Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) broadband constellation. NASA's twin ESCAPADE Mars orbiters flew on New Glenn's second flight in November 2025, and in April 2025 the US Space Force named Blue Origin one of three providers in its National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 contracts.
Starship's payloads so far have been SpaceX's own Starlink satellites. NASA contracted a Starship variant as a Human Landing System in April 2021 and added an option for further development in November 2022; NASA's Inspector General, in a March 2026 report, put the contract's original potential value at about $4.3 billion and said it had risen by about $253 million by December 2025. Elon Musk said in February 2022 that he was highly confident a Starship launch would cost less than $10 million; that is a goal, not a demonstrated or offered price, and Starship first reached orbit only in September 2026, on Flight 14.
The main architectural difference between the two vehicles is how much of each is reused. Starship is designed for full reuse of both stages; its ship has returned from orbit to a splashdown but has not yet been caught or reflown. New Glenn reuses only its first stage and expends its hydrogen second stage on every flight.
Compare launch vehicles and track upcoming launches on SpaceNexus
About 124 metres tall and 9 metres across against 98 metres and 7 metres, with nearly five times the first-stage thrust (about 18 million lbf from 33 Raptor engines versus about 3.8 million lbf from 7 BE-4s) and more than twice the design payload to low Earth orbit: 100+ t fully reused (SpaceX design figure) against 45,000 kg. Starship carried its first payload to orbit, 26 Starlink V3 satellites, on Flight 14 in September 2026.
Starship has no separate fairing: payloads ride inside its 9-metre upper stage. New Glenn has a 7-metre fairing, larger than Falcon 9's 5.2-metre fairing.
New Glenn reuses its first stage, landing on a ship at sea, and expends its hydrogen upper stage; one New Glenn booster has flown twice. Starship is designed to reuse both stages, with the booster caught by the launch tower; its ship has not yet been caught or reflown.
Starship burns liquid methane and liquid oxygen in both stages. New Glenn burns liquefied natural gas and oxygen in the first stage (BE-4) and liquid hydrogen and oxygen in the second (BE-3U).
New Glenn on its first flight, NG-1, in January 2025. Starship on its 14th flight, on September 28, 2026; all 13 test flights before it, from April 2023, flew suborbital trajectories. Our status comparison covers where each stands today.