Is Blue Origin’s New Glenn Going To Be Fully Reusable?
Blue Origin is currently working on their next big project, New Glenn. New Glenn is a very ambitious and important goal for Blue Origin. Right now New Glenn is in development and changes are constantly being made as Blue Origins goals shift.
Yes, New Glenn is going to be fully reusable. While the rocket initially was planned to be partially reusable, Blue Origin has since changed its mind. They are now working towards making New Glenn a fully reusable rocket. The reason for this change has to do with cutting down on overall costs per launch.
Blue Origin is not nearly as transparent as other companies such as SpaceX. This can make it hard to see exactly what their plans and timeline are. Despite this Blue Origin has said they are aiming for the first launch to be in late 2022. We will have to see if the changes in development will slow them down or if they will reach their ambitious goal.
What Is New Glenn?
New Glenn is Blue Origin’s heavy-lift rocket currently in development. Blue Origin started working on the rocket in 2012. New Glenn is a two-stage fully reusable rocket that is supposed to be capable of bringing 50 tons into low Earth orbit. Blue Origin is also working on its BE-4 engine to power the rocket. The rocket is very big at 98m tall and 7m wide. This is far bigger than Blue Origins’ current rocket the New Shepard. New Shepard does however give them some experience in the process of landing a rocket booster. The New Glenn is not meant for only cargo but humans as well. Blue Origin stated New Glenn is a “vehicle capable of carrying people and payloads routinely to Earth orbit and beyond.” New Glenn if successful could be a huge help to Blue Origin who has been behind lately in the space industry.
The Original New Glenn Plan
The original New Glenn plan consisted of the same two-stage rocket but only partially reusable. Blue Origin was working on making New Glenn’s booster reusable but not the second stage. We are not exactly sure the reasons but it likely had to do with complexity and Blue Origin not wanting to get too ahead of themselves. Additionally the plan consisted of launching New Glenn from Launch Complex 36. Once high enough stage separation would happen between the booster and the second stage.
The booster using its multiple fins would then guide itself back towards Earth and aim for a large mobile ship landing pad. It would also perform multiple landing burns to slow it down and safely touch down on the ship. The second stage would continue into space and put the payload in the correct orbit. Once the payload was delivered the second stage would fall back down to earth and be discarded in the ocean. Below is an animated simulation of what the original New Glenn launch would look like provided by Blue Origin.
Why Blue Origin Changed Their Mind
While it’s not 100% clear, there are a lot of reasons that might have made Blue Origin change their mind. The first big one is cost. Just like the Falcon 9, having a reusable booster is great. The big downside is a lot of money still goes into remaking the second stage. The booster is a good stepping stone but if you are capable of making the second stage reusable it will save your company a lot of money in the long run.
Another reason that could have helped change their mind is Starship. Starship is planned to be a fully reusable rocket with a launch cost of around $2 million. This cost is so low that it will be very hard to compete with SpaceX in the future. Blue Origin knows that SpaceX is a big competitor and they need to lower their launch costs as well to stay a big player in the space launch game. The cheaper it costs to launch Starship or New Glenn the cheaper it costs for customers to launch their payload into orbit. Additionally, it is likely Blue Origin has kept a close eye on Starship’s progress. They have seen how successful the testing campaign has been which has helped change their mind about New Glenn.
The last possible reason is Blue Origins’ prior experience with New Shepard. While that rocket is very different they already have a bit of experience landing a booster after launch. New Glenn is quite the step up but New Shepard could have given them some extra confidence to make the switch fully reusable.
The Updated New Glenn Plan
Blue Origin has changed its mind and is working towards making New Glenn 100% reusable. Recently information became public that Blue Origin is working on something new called Project Jarvis. The point of this project is to develop a fully reusable second stage for New Glenn. So far we have seen Blue Origin testing a stainless steel propellant tank for the main structure of the second stage that looks similar to Starship.
A photo came out of the test tank on Blue Origins launch complex facility where they were testing it and it raised a lot of eyes. It got a lot of negative attention because of how similar it looked to Starships test tanks. Despite this Blue Origin is continuing to test and work on making the second stage fully reusable as well. The rest of the plan stays the same including the booster landing on a large ship landing pad out in the sea. If successful Blue Origin will have a very powerful and inexpensive rocket capable of carrying around 50 tons into low Earth orbit.
When Will We See New Glenn’s First Launch
New Glenn was originally supposed to launch this year in late 2021. Blue Origin ended up pushing this date back to late 2022. Despite this delay, a New Glenn launch at the end of 2022 is still very ambitious. With the change of design and the additional factors, Blue Origin will have to work extremely fast to reach its goals. Not only is the design changing but they are making their first heavy-lift rocket, first reusable second stage, and first time trying to land a booster on a moving landing pad in the ocean. However, Blue Origin does not lack any funding thanks to CEO Jeff Bezos. If Blue Origin speeds up its production and has some success it is possible we start to see New Glenn launching by the end of 2022.
Conclusion
Blue Origin is working towards making New Glenn fully reusable. While they initially were planning on it being partially they have since changed their mind. With the goal of cutting down costs, competing with Starship, and seeing the progress Starship has made, they are going for the fully reusable route. This brings up a lot of firsts for Blue Origin making the project quite risky. With the first launch planned to be in late 2022, they will have to speed up production and testing. If successful Blue Origin will be a serious contender in the space industry and will be capable of providing affordable launches for big cargos.