Blue Origin releases future plans and upgrades for New Glenn
Blue Origin has just released an incredible update on the short-term and long-term visions for New Glenn: they’ve talked about upgrades that will make the rocket better and even introduced a new, super-heavy lift generation of the vehicle, which is set to be able to compete with the biggest launchers, including SLS and Starship.
Short-term upgrades
Over the first 2 New Glenn missions, which launched in January and November of this year, Blue Origin has learned a lot; these learnings made them able to reach the impressive milestone of landing the first stage on the second attempt, as well as precisely delivering all payloads, allowing them to complete their science objectives.
Now, BO is gearing up for NG-3, set to take place in Q1 2026, sending the first Blue Moon Mk.1 lander to the Moon. Starting on this mission, and continuing on the next ones, Blue is set to debut several major improvements on the rocket, allowing it to be more reliable and powerful:
Starting on the major side, propulsion, the company has worked hard to improve the BE-4 and BE-3U engines, increasing their thrust during testing:
BE-4: 7 BE-4 engines power the first stage, GS1, each with a thrust of 2459 kN, giving a total value of about 17.219 kN! That’s high, but thanks to improvements, Blue was able to increase the thrust by 15%, with a thrust per engine of 2846-2891 kN and a total one of 19.928 kN; this gives New Glenn more power for ascent and descent, increasing the payload capacity. Engines on the test stands have already reached a peak thrust of 2780 kN, but Blue is confident in reaching their goal value by the end of this year.
BE-4 engine. Credit: Blue Origin
BE-3U: there are 2 BE-3Us powering the second stage, or GS2, of New Glenn; their original thrust value was 711 kN per engine (1423 kN total), but it had increased to 769 kN by the time the first flight occurred. Then, engineers made a minor increase to 778 kN, with this new subversion debuting on NG-2; however, there has now been a major improvement, with the goal being 889 kN of thrust per engine, a 25% increase compared to the original ones. This thrust is not theory, as they have already achieved a 940 kN value on the test stands, and they plan to use this new version next year as well.
BE-3U firing to 940 kN of thrust. Credit: Dave Limp
The next big, great improvement will be switching to the use of subcooled propellants: these are propellants that are cooled well below their boiling point (above which they start to evaporate) but above their freezing point (below which they’d freeze solid); this means they are colder and therefore denser, allowing for more propellant to be stored in the same volume of tank.
On the other side, subcooled (or superchilled) propellants have to be loaded as close as possible to launch to reduce warming and boiloff: an example is Falcon 9, which loads them 35 minutes ahead of launch, or Starship, which loads them about 50 minutes before launch. As of now, New Glenn starts propellant loading four and a half hours ahead of launch, due to its use of non-subcooled propellants; however, once they start using them, we will see shorter propellant loading times and possibly even a shorter or non-existent margin for holding… as a matter of fact, Falcon 9 CAN’T hold during the countdown once it starts propellant loading, whereas Starship CAN hold for up to 30 minutes if needed; we will have to wait to see which is the case with New Glenn. Along with the new state of propellants, Blue Origin will also develop better, cheaper tanks.
On the reusability side, BO has made some changes as well: they’ve formally announced their plans to start recovering fairings, the 2 shells at the top of the rocket protecting the payloads, and separating about three and a half minutes into flight; BO tested fairing recovery systems a few years ago, so they’ve likely refined the theory by now.
So far, only SpaceX has recovered fairings, and that saves them the $6 million cost of making new ones every time; once Blue joins the team, they will be able to reduce the costs even more, allowing for rapid turnaround times.
Blue also improved the Comet TPS (Thermal Protection System), the goldish, metallic fabric that protects some parts of the rocket from the heat of reentry and landing (the aft, the strakes and fins, and the interstage), making it more performant and suited for rapid reusability.
New Glenn’s Comet TPS seen up close. Credit: Jeff Bezos
New Glenn 9X4: a new giant in town
Render of the New Glenn 9X4 variant. Credit: Blue Origin
No, it’s not a nickname; it’s the official name given to the next-generation and newer configuration of New Glenn: New Glenn 9X4.
They called it like this because this generation will have 9 engines on the first stage and 4 engines on the second stage… yep, you’ve heard me right… if the thrust numbers remain the same (that’s to say, in the unlikely scenario they don’t improve them anymore), then we’re looking at 26.000 kN of thrust on GS1 and 3556 kN on GS2; this massive improvement would boost the stages’ thrust by 30% and 99%, respectively, compared to the already upgraded versions that will debut soon!
This thrust improvement doesn’t come without dimension changes: from the renders, it looks like New Glenn 9X4 will be nearly as tall as Starship and will feature an 8.7-m-wide fairing, allowing for enormous amount of payloads to be carried.
Comparison between New Glenn, Saturn V, and 9X4. Credit: Dave Limp
The current New Glenn (7X2) has a payload capacity of 45 metric tons to LEO, 13 metric tons to GTO (Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit), and 7 tons to direct TLI (Trans-Lunar Injection).
This places it in the heavy-lift category, along with rockets such as Ariane 6 or Delta IV Heavy.
New Glenn 9X4 will be able to deliver an astounding 70 metric tons to LEO, more than 14 metric tons to direct GEO, and more than 20 metric tons to TLI, giving it the ability to send heavy payloads (including lunar landers, space station modules, and stacks of megaconstellation satellites) to a wide range of orbits. This makes it a super-heavy lift launch vehicle, putting it into the same category as Falcon Heavy (which can deliver up to 64 tons, although it can’t due to adapter limitations) and Starship Block 3 (allegedly able to deliver up to 100 tons, while the Block 2 version was able to send 35 tons).
Blue aims to keep both versions operational, so customers can choose between the configuration that most suits them… while no timeline has been shared, it’s clear that this next-gen version won’t come online next year.
Overall, this is only the start of the New Glenn era, and I suggest you buckle up, because the next few years are going to be crazy!
References
Blue Origin (@blueorigin) / Posts / X
New Glenn Update | Blue Origin
