Blue Origin

Catalog — Rockets

• 2025

  New Glenn

  New Glenn is a family of two-stage partially reusable launch vehicles developed and operated by the American company Blue Origin. It is named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. All versions use seven-meter diameter stages, and with a payload capacity of 45 tons to low Earth orbit it is the most powerful reusable launch vehicle to reach orbit. The rocket exists in two configurations that should not be conflated. The operational one, New Glenn 7×2, is a heavy-lift vehicle 98 m tall: its 57.5 m GS1 first stage carries seven BE-4 engines burning liquid methane and oxygen, while the 23.4 m GS2 second stage uses two hydrolox BE-3U engines. The configuration under development, New Glenn 9×4, is a super heavy-lift vehicle with nine BE-4 engines on the first stage and four BE-3U on the second. Announced in November 2025, the company says it will be capable of more than 70,000 kg to low Earth orbit, over 14,000 kg on a direct insertion to geosynchronous orbit and more than 20,000 kg to a trans-lunar injection trajectory, together with an enlarged 8.7 m fairing. As with Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard, New Glenn's first stage is designed for reuse and lands at sea aboard the barge Landing Platform Vessel 1. Blue Origin states that both the 7×2 and 9×4 versions are intended to operate concurrently.