Blue Origin upgrades New Glenn with cheaper, more powerful engine

Blue Origin announces New Glenn upgrades

Blue Origin revealed two major upgrades to its New Glenn rocket at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, aiming to reduce manufacturing costs and expand payload capacity to orbit and the Moon.

Northstar engine replaces BE-4

The new Northstar engine will eventually replace the BE-4 engine powering New Glenn's first stage. It has half the parts, thirty percent less mass, and about sixty five percent can be three D-printed.

Northstar costs 25 percent less

Blue Origin believes it can manufacture Northstar at twenty five percent of the cost of a BE-4 engine, eventually assembling each engine in less than a day.

“To get access to space at a lower cost, we have to look at every part of the vehicle. This is going to be a game-changer.”

GS3 third stage for lunar missions

Blue Origin is developing GS3, a hydrogen-oxygen third stage for New Glenn offering direct injection to geostationary orbit and Earth-escape trajectories.

Composite tanks hold hydrogen

GS3 uses composite tanks to stay light, powered by the BE-7 engine. Hydrogen is the smallest atom and leaky, but Blue Origin successfully tested a five point five-meter composite liquid hydrogen tank at one hundred…

Tank tested beyond limits

The composite tank was even successfully tested at one hundred fifty percent of maximum pressure for ten minutes, giving Blue Origin confidence that a GS3 based on composite tanks could move forward.

GS3 debut planned for 2028

Blue Origin is aiming for a GS3 debut in twenty twenty-eight for a government customer already signed up for cislunar space operations.

“We have one customer signed up for cislunar space in 2028. We are open for business.”