Local Space Coast Photographer Lau Brown First Look Images of Blue Origin's New Glenn First Stage Booster Transported To LC-36 On January 10th 2024. Photos used with permission.
New Glenn is a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin, named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. Design work on the vehicle began in 2012; illustrations of the vehicle, and the high-level specifications, were initially publicly unveiled in September 2016. New Glenn is a two-stage rocket with a diameter of 7 m (23 ft). Its first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines that are also being designed and manufactured by Blue Origin.
Like the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle used for space tourism activities, the New Glenn's first stage has been designed to be reusable since its inception.[5] In 2021, the company started a program to make the second stage reusable as well, with the project codenamed Project Jarvis.[6] A first test tank was created in 2021.[7]
As of November 2023, the first launch is expected to take place no earlier than August 2024, carrying NASA's EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars.[4]