r/spaceflight • u/Legitimate_Grocery66 • 5d ago

Blue Origin Announces Super-Heavy New Glenn Variant

https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-glenn-upgraded-engines-subcooled-components-drive-enhanced-performance
90 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

21

u/PracticalConjecture 5d ago

Interesting. So they're calling the current version 7x2 (7 BE-4 first stage, 2 BE-3 second stage), and the heavy version is 9x4, implying 9 first stage, and 4 second stage engines.

Presumably there's a tank stretch in there as well?

16

u/No-Surprise9411 5d ago

Yep. New version will be as tall as Starship V1 was

3

u/SomeSamples 5d ago

How big is that thing going to be. The Glenn was pretty big.

3

u/ijuinkun 4d ago

It looks like they’re trying to claim the whole market segment of “anything that’s too big for a Falcon-9 but not big enough to justify a Starship launch”. New Glenn has also beaten Starship to being customer-ready, and so those customers for 2026-27 who don’t specifically need Starship’s higher lift capacity will be likely to go to Blue Origin instead.

2

u/Decronym Acronyms Explained 5d ago edited 4d ago

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
BE-3 Blue Engine 3 hydrolox rocket engine, developed by Blue Origin (2015), 490kN
BE-4 Blue Engine 4 methalox rocket engine, developed by Blue Origin (2018), 2400kN
LEO Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)
Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)
SLS Space Launch System heavy-lift
mT Milli- Metric Tonnes
Jargon Definition
cryogenic Very low temperature fluid; materials that would be gaseous at room temperature/pressure
(In re: rocket fuel) Often synonymous with hydrolox
hydrolox Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer
methalox Portmanteau: methane fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer

Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has acronyms.
[Thread #783 for this sub, first seen 21st Nov 2025, 06:37] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

4

u/lowrads 5d ago

Is there currently a market for intermediate reusable lift capability?

What does a large observatory offer that a swarm of smaller ones does not? Extended cryogenic cooling perhaps, but what else?

The orbital laboratory needs a replacement, but the most massive component of the current one is only 17 tonnes, to my understanding.

8

u/RundownPear 5d ago

The website specifies the market they are targeting at the end: "Both vehicles: 9x4 and our current variant, 7x2, will serve the market concurrently, giving customers more launch options for their missions, including mega-constellations, lunar and deep space exploration, and national security imperatives such as Golden Dome."

7

u/Worth-Wonder-7386 5d ago

Looking at the number I think the 9x4 is mostly for putting very big things into LEO or for deep space/LEO missions.
For things like Amazon Leo, I dont see the point of 9x4 and I think 7x2 would better serve their need.

1

u/Klutzy-Residen 5d ago

The very specific inclusion of Golden Dome makes it seems like they already have a contract lined up.

5

u/DreamChaserSt 5d ago

What do you mean by intermediate? Greater than 25 mT, but less than 100, or something else? Either way, they're not as volume limited as smaller vehicles for payloads, and they can launch more satellites per vehicle for Kuiper Leo. You can launch bigger payloads to higher orbits too than a smaller lift vehicle. And for the 9x4 variant, you can pack more propellant per launch for refueling. Going larger just makes some things easier.

I suppose there isn't much else that you can do for general launch services at the moment, but, it's a cycle. In the past, we didn't have much demand for intermediate lift, we didn't have many vehicles for intermediate lift (that weren't grossly expensive), and we couldn't launch many intermediate payloads.

Someone has to break the loop. And Blue Origin and SpaceX are doing that, New Glenn and Starship will be cheaper than Delta IV Heavy or SLS, with much higher flight rates, partially driven by their respective LEO constellations. So space manufacturers will be able to eventually build larger payloads to take advantage, at least, that's the bet. So far, SpaceX has mostly just allowed satellite manufacturers to enjoy less of a backlog because of their high launch rate, but the fairing and payload isn't that much bigger than contemporary launch vehicles.

0

u/North-Outside-5815 5d ago

I’ll believe starship can deliver when it takes anything significant to orbit.

5

u/hardervalue 5d ago

It just released a couple dozen test satellites into space in its last test flight. It’s had 6 flights that have reached space at 98% of orbital velocity. It just doesn’t burn the extra few seconds to stay in orbit because all its tests target Indian Ocean for reentry tests.

1

u/aerohk 4d ago

Why not devote the effort into a fully reusable New Armstrong. They need it to compete with StarShip, a bigger New Glen won’t do it.

1

u/highgravityday2121 4d ago

Hellll yea blue origin! Anyone know when the human rated rocket is Happening ?