Blue Origin ready for maiden flight of New Glenn

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After years of development, Blue Origin’s semi-reusable heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, is due to launch on its maiden flight on Jan. 12 at 1:00 AM EST (06:00 UTC) after recently completing its seven-engine hotfire. The flight is set to launch a Blue Ring Pathfinder payload to demonstrate the capabilities of the company’s future Blue Ring multi-mission space mobility platform. Blue Origin pushed the launch from Jan. 10 due to rough seas, which would have precluded a booster recovery.

New Glenn, named in honor of NASA astronaut John Glenn, was formally announced by Blue Origin in September 2016. However, the design of the vehicle began much earlier, in 2012, with the initial development of the company’s BE-4 rocket engine. Early designs of the rocket included both a two-stage variant and a three-stage variant, as well as an upper stage that would be powered by a vacuum-optimized BE-4 engine, known as BE-4U. The rocket was to fly from Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

New Glenn’s initial design compared to other rockets. (Credit: Blue Origin)

By 2018, the rocket’s design had evolved from what was initially announced. Some of the changes included the upper stage swapping out its single BE-4U engine with two BE-3U engines, derived from the BE-3 engine that powers the company’s New Shepard rocket, the addition of large fixed strakes to the first stage, and a much larger payload fairing. The three-stage variant of the rocket was canceled in 2019.

By this time, Blue Origin had constructed a large manufacturing facility at Space Florida’s Exploration Park, just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, at Launch Complex 36 large-scale work was underway to construct an entirely new launch pad for New Glenn. By late 2020 the complex received two massive 175-meter tall towers on either side of the launch pad, a 106-meter tall water tower, a 13 thousand square meter integration facility, and many other critical pieces of pad infrastructure required to launch such a vehicle.

LC-36 as seen in December 2024. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)


In late 2021, a New Glenn first stage simulator emerged from the company’s Florida factory. It shared roughly the same measurements and mass as a flight article and provided employees with experience when it came to handling such a large vehicle. The simulator stage was transported from the factory out to the launch pad, a 37 km journey that involves many obstacles along the way.

At the launch pad, the simulator allowed Blue to practice handling and integrating the stage with a simulator second stage and fairings. This included the assembled vehicle being mated with the transporter erector and rolled out to the launch pad.

The first sighting of a complete New Glenn booster tank module came in late 2023 outside of the company’s factory. This section of the vehicle would serve as a pathfinder stage and undergo cryogenic testing at LC-36 in early 2024. Following several rounds of testing the pathfinder stage was rolled back to the factory, and the tank section was to be used for a future operational mission.

The New Glenn pathfinder at LC-36 in February 2024. (Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)

The next large milestone came in September when the second stage for the first flight of New Glenn was hotfired on the pad. The test involved a 15-second firing from the stage’s twin BE-3U engines, gimballing of the engines, as well as the stage using its tank pressurization control system which uses helium to keep the onboard liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen pressurized in flight.

Following this successful test, the first stage for the inaugural launch rolled from the factory in late October. The booster playfully named So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance was the first fully complete stage, including its seven BE-4 engines. The vehicle was moved to integration facility LC-36 where it would be mated with its second stage and a payload fairing before going through testing on the pad.

After rolling out the integration facility for the first time on Nov. 20, New Glenn went through several tests on the launch pad to validate vehicle and ground systems while in a fully integrated configuration. This included tanking tests, a wet dress rehearsal, and a hotfire, also known as a static fire.

New Glenn standing at LC-36 before preflight testing. (Credit: Blue Origin)

The tanking tests were used to demonstrate the ability to flow propellants from the launch pad’s ground support equipment into the rocket’s fuel tanks. This was followed by a full terminal count sequence which allowed for the testing of switching to and from the vehicle’s flight computer.

On Dec. 27, following the wet dress rehearsal, the first stage performed a 24-second long hotfire of its seven BE-4 engines, which included the engines firing at 100% power for 13 seconds. The test not only marked the first time BE-4s had been fired at LC-36 but also the first time seven of the engines had been fired together.

The test came just hours after the company received a Part 450 commercial space launch license from the FAA. The license, valid for five years, allows Blue Origin to launch orbital missions of New Glenn from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and land the reusable first stage on a landing platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the days following the successful test, New Glenn was lowered back to horizontal and rolled back into its integration facility. This expected rollback allowed teams to inspect the vehicle as its big test campaign and swap out the empty payload fairing for the flight variant that included the encapsulated Blue Ring Pathfinder payload. The flight-ready rocket is rolled out and went vertical on Jan. 9.

On launch day, New Glenn’s intended final orbit is approximately 2,400 km by 19,300 km inclined 30 degrees. The Blue Ring Pathfinder payload is a non-separable system that will be the first on-orbit test of Blue Origin’s avionics intended to support the company’s future Blue Ring platform.

The Blue Ring Pathfinder before being encapsulated in New Glenn’s fairings. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, shared that the payload is “equipped with storage and compute virtualization to demonstrate anomaly detection using machine learning. Its mission kit provides high-performance, radiation-tolerant compute and storage akin to today’s cloud-based offerings.” The payload is expected to communicate with ground stations located in Mingenew, Australia, Paumalu, Hawaii, and Pendergrass, Georgia.

Following the launch, New Glenn’s first stage is expected to attempt a landing on the recovery vessel Jacklyn, also known as Landing Platform Vessel 1, which will be positioned 620 km downrange from LC-36.

Blue Origin’s recovery fleet in Port Canaveral. (Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)

After the upper stage separates, the booster will perform a reorient maneuver to prepare for an exoatmospheric deceleration burn, slowing the stage down before reentry by igniting three of the BE-4 engines. During re-entry, the vehicle’s two large strakes will provide lift and allow the booster to glide through the atmosphere, while the four actuating fins and reaction control system near the top of the stage will provide steering control.

During landing, a single BE-4 will ignite to slow the vehicle down and provide final guidance down to the surface of Jacklyn. During the landing burn, six landing legs hosted in the boosters aft module will deploy 14 seconds from touchdown and help provide a soft landing.

If So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance does successfully land on Jacklyn, Blue Origin will become the second company to fly and land a reusable orbital class rocket booster, following SpaceX, who first landed a Falcon 9 booster over nine years ago in late 2015.

A render of New Glenn’s first stage landing on Jacklyn after launch. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Following landing, Blue Origin will use a Recovery Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, to connect to the aft module of the booster. This system will provide the vehicle with communication, pneumatic, and power links from Jacklyn by using a robotic manipulator arm. Given that the recovery crews aboard support vessel Harvey Stone will be over 8 km away, the ROV provides quick and safe access to the towering stage, especially during poor weather conditions.

Blue Origin has multiple New Glenn boosters and upper stages in production which will be used to form a fleet for the company’s future missions including NASA’s ESCAPADE, Blue Moon lunar landers, Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, and more.

(Lead Image: New Glenn vertical at LC-36. Credit: Blue Origin)

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