New Glenn
Reusable orbital launcher | |
Manufacturer | Blue Origin |
---|---|
Country of origin | United States |
Size | |
Height | 98 m (322 ft) [1] |
Diameter | 7 m (23 ft) |
Stages | 2 |
Capacity | |
Payload to low Earth orbit (LEO) | |
Mass | 45,000 kg (99,000 lb) [2][3] |
Payload to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) | |
Mass | 13,600 kg (30,000 lb) [2][3] |
Associated rockets | |
Comparable | |
Launch history | |
Status | In development |
Launch sites | BE-3U |
Maximum thrust | 1,400 kN (320,000 lbf) |
Propellant | LH2 / LOX |
New Glenn is a
Development of the New Glenn rocket started before 2013 and was formally announced in 2016,[8][9] with an inaugural flight slated for 2020.[10] After multiple delays over five years, as of November 2023 the first launch is expected to take place no earlier than August 2024, carrying NASA's EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars.[4]
Like the
History
After initiating the development of an orbital rocket system prior to 2012, and stating in 2013 on their website that the first stage would do a powered vertical landing and be reusable,
Early design work on orbital subsystems
Blue Origin began developing systems for orbital human spacecraft prior to 2012. A reusable first-stage booster was projected to fly a suborbital trajectory, taking off vertically like the booster stage of a conventional multistage launch vehicle. Following stage separation, the upper stage would continue to propel astronauts to orbit while the first-stage booster would descend to perform a powered vertical landing similar to its New Shepard suborbital vehicle. The first-stage booster was to be refueled and relaunched to reduce costs of access for humans to space.[8]
The booster launch vehicle was projected to lift Blue Origin's biconic Space Vehicle capsule to orbit, carrying astronauts and supplies. After completing its mission in orbit, the Space Vehicle was designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere and land under parachutes on land, to be reused on future missions.[8]
Engine testing for the (then-named) Reusable Booster System (RBS) launch vehicle began in 2012. A full-power test of the thrust chamber for Blue Origin
Development
Design work on the vehicle began in 2012, with the beginning of
The vehicle itself, and the high-level specifications, were initially publicly unveiled in September 2016. New Glenn was described as a 7 m (23 ft) diameter,
Blue Origin explained in the 12 September 2016 announcement that the rocket would be named New Glenn in honor of the first American astronaut to orbit the
In March 2017, Jeff Bezos showed graphics of the New Glenn which had two large strakes at the bottom of the booster.[27] In the September 2017 announcement, Blue Origin announced a much larger payload fairing for New Glenn, this one 7 m (23 ft) in diameter, up from 5.4 m (18 ft) in the originally announced design.[21]
By March 2018, the launch vehicle design had changed. It was announced that the New Glenn second stage will now be powered by two vacuum versions of the flight proven BE-3 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine (BE-3U) with a single BE-3U engine for the third stage deep space option. The three stage booster variant was subsequently cancelled completely in January 2019.
By February 2019, several launches for New Glenn had been contracted: five for
In August 2020 the Air Force announced that New Glenn was not selected for the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 launch procurement. Due to this, in February 2021 Blue Origin announced that the first flight would slip to no earlier than late 2022.[32]
By December 2020, Blue Origin indicated that the BE-4 engine delivery to ULA would slip to summer 2021, and ULA disclosed that the first launch of the New Glenn competitor ULA Vulcan Centaur would now be no earlier than 4Q 2021.[39] Blue Origin announced a further schedule slip for the first launch of New Glenn in March 2021 when the company said New Glenn "would not launch until the fourth quarter of 2022, at the earliest."[40]
By 2021, Blue had changed the published reuse specification for New Glenn to a minimum of 25 flights,[41] from the previous design of 2016 to support up to 100 flights.[2][3]
In March 2022, the expected first launch of New Glenn slipped to no earlier than Q4 2023.[42]
In January 2024, the first stage of New Glenn was being transported at Kennedy Space Center from the factory to the launch complex in preparation for a 2024 launch.[43]
In February 2024, a boiler plate of both the first and second stages of New Glenn have been erected on launch pad LC-36 for the first time. This test vehicle was not in flight-ready condition, however, as there were no functioning engines mounted to it.[44]
"Jarvis" reusable upper stage
Information became public in July 2021 that Blue Origin had begun a "project to develop a fully reusable upper stage for New Glenn," under the name "Project Jarvis", just as
Beyond the technical changes indicated, Bezos created a new management structure for the new efforts, walling off "parts of the second-stage development program from the rest of Blue Origin [telling] its leaders to innovate in an environment unfettered by rigorous management and paperwork processes."[38][12] However, no indication of the budget allowed to the development of this reusable second-stage was released to the public.
Part of the effort is focusing on developing a
In addition to the Jarvis team working on a new second stage tank design, Blue Origin set up another team in 2021 to focus on design approaches that might be used to make a New Glenn second stage reusable, something that was not a design objective for the original second stage planned for New Glenn prior to 2021. As of August 2021[update], three approaches are being explored: adding
Description and technical specifications
The New Glenn is a 7 m (23 ft) diameter two-stage orbital launch vehicle with a reusable first stage
The first stage is designed to be reusable for a minimum of 25 flights,
Both stages will use
Launches of the New Glenn are planned to be made from
Manufacturing
The main assembly of the New Glenn launch vehicle will occur in the Blue Origin rocket manufacturing facility in Florida, near Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) which the company leased from Spaceport Florida. Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) has hosted more than 100 launches, formerly launching the Atlas II and Atlas III.
Tooling and equipment for the factory began to be ordered and built in 2015. In July 2018, the build of the largest device, a 16 m (52 ft) tall × 41 m (135 ft) long × 13 m (43 ft) wide
Launch services
Blue Origin will offer both single-payload dedicated flights and, after the fifth launch, dual-manifesting of large
Launch service customers
By 2018, Blue Origin had contracts in place with four customers for New Glenn flights.
In January 2019, Telesat signed a multi-launch contract "to launch satellites for its future low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation on multiple New Glenn missions" and thus is Blue Origin's fifth customer.[55]
In 2022, Amazon announced that it had contracted 12 flights of New Glenn, with an option for 15 more, for deployment of the Kuiper satellite constellation.[56] Amazon, founded by Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, had also ordered 38 launches of Vulcan from ULA and 18 launches of Ariane 6 from Arianespace.
In February 2023, NASA announced that it had selected Blue Origin to launch the EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars. The mission is targeting a launch window between 6 and 15 August 2024.[57] As of November 2023, EscaPADE is expected to fly on the first launch of New Glenn.[4]
Schedule-oriented launch cadence
Blue Origin intends to contract its
Funding
The
See also
- Space launch market competition
- Falcon Heavy (SpaceX)
- Ariane 6 (Arianespace)
- Vulcan Centaur (United Launch Alliance)
- SpaceX Starship
- Space Launch System (NASA/Boeing), not intended for commercial satellite launch
- Saturn C-3 (1962 NASA Saturn design for Apollo EOR), same lift capacity
- Comparison of orbital launch systems
- Comparison of orbital launchers families
References
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New Glenn's fully reusable first stage is designed for a minimum of 25 flights, making it competitive for a variety of launch markets.
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External links
- Official website
- New Glenn: The Road to Space on YouTube by Blue Origin