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Blue Origin plans New Glenn engine swap and hydrogen third stage
Ars Technica reports Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said the company is testing a Northstar first-stage engine and developing a GS3 hydrogen third stage for New Glenn.
- New headline Was: “Blue Origin announces rocket upgrades aimed at lower costs, more performance”
- Our desk filed its story
Blue Origin on Thursday described two planned New Glenn upgrades, a first-stage engine called Northstar and a hydrogen-oxygen third stage called GS3, according to Ars Technica, which cited chief executive Dave Limp at the UP.Summit conference at Florida's Shuttle Landing Facility1.
Limp said launch demand has never been higher and that the company wants New Glenn, with the upgrades, to eventually fly more than 1,000 times a year, Ars Technica reported1. He said lower access to space requires looking at every part of the vehicle1.
Northstar is meant to replace the BE-4 engines on New Glenn's first stage1. Ars Technica said Limp described it as a simpler, more powerful BE-4 derivative with half as many parts, 30 percent less mass and about 65 percent of it 3D-printed1. Test firing has already begun, the report said1.
BE-4 produces 640,000 pounds of thrust; Limp said Northstar would start at 715,000 pounds1. Like BE-4, it would burn methane and liquid oxygen in an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle with a single-shaft turbopump, according to Ars Technica1. Blue Origin said it thinks it can make Northstar at 25 percent of BE-4 cost and later assemble each engine in less than a day1. Limp said BE-4 production would continue for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan, which uses two of those engines1.
GS3, for Glenn Stage 3, is meant to inject payloads directly to geostationary orbit and Earth-escape paths while sitting in an interstage so the fairing volume stays available, Ars Technica reported1. It could fly on both the 7x2 and 9x4 New Glenn versions1. Blue Origin said a 7x2 with GS3 could deliver 8 metric tons to geostationary orbit and 10 metric tons to translunar injection; those figures would be 14 tons and 20 tons on a 9x4, according to the report1.
The stage would use the company's BE-7 hydrogen-oxygen engine, already used on lunar landers, and would be mostly composite to keep mass down, Limp said, per Ars Technica1. Ars Technica noted hydrogen leaks easily and that composite tanks can crack under thermal cycling and strain1. Limp said the company had not been sure a 5.5-meter composite tank could hold hydrogen at high pressure1.
Ars Technica said Blue Origin recently completed a first composite liquid-hydrogen tanking test at Launch Site One in Texas, holding 100 percent of the maximum expected operating pressure for 2.5 hours and 150 percent for 10 minutes1. The company is aiming for a GS3 debut in 2028 for a government customer1. Limp said one customer is signed for cislunar space in 20281.
