Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos revealed his Blue Origin space company's new rocket design, designed to take human and commercial sa...
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos revealed his Blue Origin space company's new rocket design, designed to take human and commercial satellite payloads into orbit, which the company has been developing since four years.
The 'New Glenn' rocket will be the second tallest operational launch vehicle when built, after NASA's heavy lift SLS launch vehicle which will debut in 2018. The rocket will be close to the 363.0 ft (110.6 m) high Saturn V moon rocket in height, which was used for the Apollo space program in 1973.
Named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, the 23 ft diameter New Glenn will have two variants- a two stage and three stage- and is expected to be ready by the end of the decade.
The reusable 170 ft first stage of the New Glenn rocket will be powered by seven BE-4 engines, which is currently under development since 2011.
The BE-4 is a liquid oxygen, liquefied natural gas (LNG) rocket engine that delivers 550,000-lbf of thrust at sea level.
The 2-stage New Glenn will be 270 feet tall, while the 3-stage New Glenn will be 313 feet tall. The extra stage for beyond Low Earth Orbit missions will be powered by a single vacuum optimized BE-4 engine.
Blue Origin has successfully demonstrated reusablilty of rocket through its 65 ft high New Shepherd suborbital rocket system, which can be control landed after launching its payload.
Hence, the Glenn's first stage will be soft landed after launching its payload into orbit, refueled and reflown vastly saving cost and time.
