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Blue Origin says it is building a higher-performing rocket engine at 1/4 the cost
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Blue Origin announced two upgrades to its New Glenn rocket on Thursday at UP.Summit in Florida. It said the changes will lower manufacturing costs and expand payload capacity to geostationary orbit and the Moon. CEO Dave Limp said demand for launch has never been higher.
Blue Origin has begun test-firing Northstar, a new engine intended to replace the BE-4 on New Glenn’s first stage. It is also developing GS3, a hydrogen-oxygen third stage, to add performance. The upgrades aim to eventually support more than 1,000 New Glenn launches a year.
Northstar is a simplified, more powerful BE-4 variant, Limp said. It has half the parts, 30 percent less mass, and about 65 percent can be 3D-printed. Blue Origin believes it can build Northstar at 25 percent of BE-4’s cost and eventually assemble one in under a day.
BE-4 currently produces 640,000 pounds of thrust. Northstar will start at 715,000 pounds, according to Limp. Like BE-4, it burns methane and liquid oxygen with an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle and single-shaft turbopump architecture.
The changes matter because lower engine cost and higher thrust could reduce launch prices and improve New Glenn’s competitiveness. A third stage would give the rocket extra energy for high-energy orbits and lunar missions. Blue Origin is deep into Northstar development and testing.
Limp framed the work as essential to expanding access to space. “To get access to space at a lower cost, we have to look at every part of the vehicle,” he said, calling Northstar “a game-changer.” Blue Origin will keep making BE-4 for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.
No timeline was given for Northstar’s first flight or GS3’s debut. Still, the announcement signals Blue Origin’s ambition to scale New Glenn production and flight rate. If realized, the upgrades could reshape competition in the launch market.
