posted 09-12-2016 08:45 AM               

A next step...

Our mascot is the tortoise. We paint one on our vehicles after each successful flight. Our motto is "Gradatim Ferociter" — step by step, ferociously. We believe "slow is smooth and smooth is fast." In the long run, deliberate and methodical wins the day, and you 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:

Building, flying, landing, and re-flying New Shepard has taught us so much about how to design for practical, operable reusability. And New Glenn incorporates all of those learnings.

Named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, New Glenn is 23 feet in diameter and lifts off with 3.85 million pounds of thrust from seven BE-4 engines. Burning liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen, these are the same BE-4 engines that will power United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket.

The two-stage New Glenn is 270 feet tall, and its second stage is powered by a single vacuum-optimized BE-4 engine. The three-stage New Glenn is 313 feet tall. A single vacuum-optimized BE-3 engine, burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, powers its third stage. The booster and the second stage are identical in both variants.

We plan to fly New Glenn for the first time before the end of this decade from historic Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. New Glenn is designed to launch commercial satellites and to fly humans into space. The three-stage variant – with its high specific impulse hydrogen upper stage – is capable of flying demanding beyond-LEO missions.

Our vision is millions of people living and working in space, and New Glenn is a very important step. It won't be the last of course. Up next on our drawing board: New Armstrong. But that's a story for the future.

posted 09-26-2016 08:24 AM               

Exciting results from three weeks of wind tunnel testing of New Glenn at transonic and supersonic speeds. Validated our CFD [computational fluid dynamics].

And here's the New Glenn descent configuration.

posted 12-19-2018 04:21 PM               

Debuting from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2021, New Glenn will serve commercial, civil and national security customers from around the world.

Featuring a 7 meter fairing with more than 2X the available volume of any rocket flying today and twin BE-3U engines powering the most capable upperstage in the market, New Glenn can launch the full range of satellite payloads. Seven reusable BE-4 engines generating 3.85 million pounds of thrust power the first stage designed to launch 25 times and land safely down range on a moving ship. New Glenn is beginning to take shape at our state-of-the-art rocket factory.

posted 12-16-2020 04:13 PM               

NASA Awards Launch Services Contract to Blue Origin for New Glenn Launch Services

NASA has awarded a NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to Blue Origin and their New Glenn launch service in accordance with the contract's on-ramp provision. The New Glenn launch service will be available to NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) to use for future missions in accordance with the on-ramp provision of NLS II.

The NLS II is a multiple-supplier, multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle with an ordering period through June 2025 and an overall period of performance through December 2027. Each supplier that is a part of NLS II has its own individual contract with LSP. The NLS II on-ramp provision provides an opportunity annually for new launch service providers to be added as a potential supplier and to compete for future NASA missions. The on-ramp provision also allows existing NLS II launch service providers to introduce launch vehicles not currently on its NLS II contract.

NLS II contractors must have the ability to successfully launch and deliver a payload to orbit using a domestic launch service capable of placing, at minimum, a 250 kg (551 lb.) payload into a 200 km (124 mile) circular orbit at an inclination of 28.5 degrees.

The NLS II contracts support the goals and objectives of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Under the contract, NASA can also provide launch services to other government agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

posted 02-25-2021 10:09 AM               

New Glenn's Progress Towards Maiden Flight

As major progress is being made on the New Glenn launch vehicle and its Cape Canaveral facilities, the schedule has been refined to match the demand of Blue Origin's commercial customers. The current target for New Glenn's maiden flight is Q4 2022. The Blue Origin team has been in contact with all of our customers to ensure this baseline meets their launch needs.

This updated maiden flight target follows the recent Space Force decision to not select New Glenn for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement (LSP).

New Glenn is proceeding to fulfill its current commercial contracts, pursue a large and growing commercial market, and enter into new civil space launch contracts. We hope to launch NSSL payloads in the future, and remain committed to serving the U.S. national defense mission.

Recent milestones include completion of a New Glenn first stage mockup simulator, completion of a structural test facility, and hardware milestones for tanks, stage modules, and composite fairings.

In addition to program progress, more than 600 jobs have been created in the region. Blue Origin has invested more than $2.5 billion in facilities and infrastructure at all sites, including $1 billion invested in the rebuild of historic LC-36, which is nearing completion.

posted 11-08-2021 02:10 PM               

As New Glenn makes progress towards first flight, testing with the GS1 simulator will enable the team to practice ground ops for New Glenn’s massive first stage, including the transport from the rocket manufacturing complex to LC-36 for integration.

While not destined for flight, this hardware is giving our team invaluable data to inform future launch vehicle operations.

posted 11-11-2021 11:13 AM               

The New Glenn GS1 simulator is on the move to LC-36.

The simulator consists of separable aft, mid, and forward modules, which emulate the mass, center of gravity, outer mold line and external interfaces of the flight modules.

posted 01-22-2024 04:33 PM               

The first and second stages of New Glenn’s test vehicle mate for the first time, enabling us to exercise our tooling and stage interfaces in preparation for our first launch later this year.

posted 02-21-2024 08:03 PM               

Blue Origin Debuts New Glenn on Our Launch Pad

Our New Glenn vehicle successfully rolled out and upended today for the first time on the pad at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36). This milestone represents the first view of the advanced heavy-lift vehicle, which will support a multitude of customer missions and Blue Origin programs, including returning to the Moon as part of NASA's Artemis program.

Everything on the pad is real New Glenn hardware.

The upending is one in a series of major manufacturing and integrated test milestones in preparation for New Glenn's first launch later this year. The test campaign enables our teams to practice, validate, and increase proficiency in vehicle integration, transport, ground support, and launch operations. These tests do not require engines, which are hotfiring at the historic 4670 Test Stand in Huntsville and Launch Site One in West Texas.

The journey to the pad began in December when New Glenn's first-stage modules were transported from our factory to the Integration Facility nine miles away. The tests will conclude in the coming weeks following several demonstrations of cryogenic fluid loading, pressure control, and the vehicle's venting systems. Our launch pad and ground systems are complete and will be activated for the first time during the test campaign.

New Glenn is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. The rocket stands more than 320 feet (98 meters) high — roughly the height of a 30-story building — and features a seven-meter payload fairing, enabling twice the volume of standard five-meter class commercial launch systems. The fairing is large enough to hold three school buses. Its reusable first stage aims for a minimum of 25 missions and will land on a sea-based platform located roughly 620 miles (1,000 km) downrange. Reusability is integral to radically reducing cost-per-launch.

The vehicle is powered by seven of Blue Origin's BE-4 engines, the most powerful liquid oxygen (LOX) / liquefied natural gas (LNG) engine developed since Saturn V's F1 engines. LNG is cleaner-burning and higher-performing than kerosene-based fuels.

Blue Origin has several New Glenn vehicles in production and a full customer manifest. Customers include NASA, Project Kuiper, Telesat, and Eutelsat, among others. Blue Origin is certifying New Glenn with the U.S. Space Force for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program to meet emerging national security objectives.

posted 08-27-2024 06:42 PM               

We recently completed our final major mate operation on New Glenn's 188-foot first stage, merging the aft with the mid module.

GS1's heart is the aft module, which contains most of the stage's avionics, hydraulics, fluids, pneumatic systems, and landing gear. Its primary purpose is to distribute the thrust load from our seven BE-4 engines to the rest of the vehicle.

Up next: Integrating all the BE-4s (all seven engine builds are complete), two strakes, and the base heat shield panels that protect the engines from re-entry heating.

posted 09-03-2024 05:17 PM               

We're looking forward to firing up those two BE-3Us on New Glenn's second stage in a few days.

posted 09-24-2024 11:23 AM               

New Glenn Completes Second Stage Hotfire

New Glenn's second stage (GS2) successfully completed a risk reduction hotfire test on Monday (Sept. 23), a milestone on our road to first flight, scheduled for launch in November, from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, FL. NG-1 will carry Blue Ring technology as its first manifested payload.

The hotfire lasted 15 seconds and marked the first time we operated the vehicle as an integrated system. The purpose of the hotfire test was to validate interactions between the subsystems on the second stage, its two BE-3U engines, and the ground control systems.

Additionally, we demonstrated its three key systems, including: the tank pressurization control system, which uses helium to pressurize the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks during flight; the thrust vector control system, which gimbals the engines and steers the rocket during flight; and validated the start-up and shut-down sequences for the BE-3U systems, which can be restarted up to three times during a mission.

In addition to testing our flight hardware, this hotfire test was also an opportunity for the launch operations team to practice launch day procedures on console and verify timing for a number of critical operations.

New Glenn's second stage is designed for demanding, highly energetic missions to low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), and geosynchronous orbit (GEO). The stage is roughly 88 feet (26.8 meters) tall with a diameter of 23 feet (7 meters). BE-3U's elegant expander bleed design yields a robust engine architecture that balances thrust, specific impulse, and cost. Each of the two BE-3Us that will fly on NG-1 were originally designed to yield up to 160,000 lbf of vacuum thrust. The engine has outperformed throughout its test campaign and will fly at 173,000 lbf, making them some of the highest thrust-to-weight ratio hydrogen engines ever flown.

Our New Glenn vehicle stands more than 320 feet (98 meters) tall. Its first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines, the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled, oxygen-rich staged combustion engine ever flown. In addition to the BE-4 and BE-3U, Blue Origin manufactures BE-7 engines for our Blue Moon lunar landers and New Shepard's BE-3PM engine.