At 04:55 on November 14, 2025, Beijing time, Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn launch vehicle was successfully launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base LC-36, carrying NASA\u2019s The spacecraft was successfully sent into heliocentric orbit and successfully achieved vertical landing and recovery of the first stage at sea, becoming the second commercial rocket company after SpaceX to successfully complete rocket recovery. This mission is not only the first time New Glenn has launched a commercial payload, but its “launch + recovery success” record will also enable Blue Origin to establish a more competitive moat in the fierce competition in the rocket launch market.<\/p>\n
1. Introduction to Rockets<\/p>\n
New Glenn is a polished heavy-duty launch vehicle with a two-stage configuration, a height of 98 meters, a low-Earth orbit transport capacity of 45 tons, and a synchronous transfer orbit transport capacity of 13.6 tons. The first sub-stage is reusable and is designed to be recycled no less than 25 times. As a heavy-duty commercial launch vehicle, New Glenn can meet the launch missions of various orbital missions with larger mass, and its 7-meter fairing enables it to transport geosynchronous orbit satellites with 5-meter diameter antennas. At present, New Glenn has been launched twice in total. Except for this time, the other launch was on January 16 this year. It was also launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station LC-36. The launch was from the MTO orbit. The mission was successful, but the recovery failed.<\/p>\n
The New Glenn first sub-stage has a diameter of 7 meters and a length of 57.5 meters (including the interstage section). It is equipped with 7 BE-4 engines. BE-4 is an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle liquid oxygen methane rocket engine independently developed by Blue Origin. It has a sea level thrust of 2446 kN (250 tons), a sea level specific impulse of about 310 s, a maximum throttle of 45%, and a total thrust of 7 engines of 17126 kN (three of which can swing horizontally). At the same time, the first sub-stage is equipped with 4 fully-motion aerodynamic rudder surfaces and 2 fins, which can provide a total of 80 tons of lift, which allows New Glenn to re-enter the atmosphere at a larger angle of attack and reduce thermal shock at the bottom. In addition, one sub-stage is equipped with 12 groups of air-conditioned RCS, 8 groups control pitch, yaw and roll, and the other 4 groups control separation. The engine nacelle is equipped with 6 landing legs required for landing. A single landing leg can provide a maximum support force of 1500 kN (150 tons). The second stage has a diameter of 7 meters and is equipped with 2 BE-3U engines. BE-3U is an open expansion cycle liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket engine self-developed by Blue Origin. It has a vacuum thrust of 712 kN (72 tons) and a maximum throttling of 88%. The fairing used for the New Glenn rocket has a diameter of 7m, a height of 21.9 meters, and a volume of 458 cubic meters.<\/p>\n
2. Introduction to recycling ships<\/p>\n
The Jacklyn is an unmanned recovery ship named by Bezos after his mother. It is 116 meters long and 46 meters wide. It is used to recover the first stage of the New Glenn rocket. In early 2023, the Jacqueline began construction in Romania; on September 4, 2024, the Jacqueline arrived at Port Canaveral, Florida, the United States, for service. The Jacqueline is equipped with an ROV (remotely operated recovery operator). The ROV can establish a connection with the rocket immediately after the New Glenn first sub-stage lands. It establishes electrical, communication and pneumatic connections between the first sub-stage and the recovery ship through a liftable mechanical arm. The ROV operator conducts remote control on the Harvey Stone tugboat, which is 5-10 nautical miles away from the Jacqueline.<\/p>\n
3. Introduction to Blue Origin<\/p>\n
Blue Origin is an aerospace company founded by Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos in 2000 and is headquartered in Kent, Washington, USA. Blue Origin achieves profitability and sustainable development by integrating diversified business models. Its revenue sources mainly include satellite launch services (for example, in April 2025, Blue Origin won 7 rocket launch missions from the U.S. Space Force), and space tourism business (Blue Origin provides short-term space tours for customers who are willing to pay for space travel experience through New Shepard suborbital flight. New Shepard was launched in April 2015. It first flew on March 29 and has completed more than ten manned flights so far), rocket engine sales (Blue Origin sells the BE-3 and BE-4 engines it developed to other companies, such as supplying BE-4 engines to United Launch Alliance to power its Vulcan rocket), and long-term space exploration plans (Blue Origin cooperates with NASA to participate in the Artemis program and provide lunar landers and other aerospace technologies). At present, although Blue Origin has achieved some advantages in commercial suborbital reusable liquid launch vehicles, in the face of fierce competition in the satellite launch service market from companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin is adjusting its development strategy from long-term research and development to paying more attention to operational efficiency and launch frequency. This year, Blue Origin announced organizational restructuring and a large number of layoffs in engineering, R&D and project management departments. Its CEO Dave Limp said that Blue Origin\u2019s main goal in 2025 and beyond is to expand production output and launch frequency. With the successful recovery of the first stage of the New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin may focus more on improving the rocket reuse process and increasing the frequency of launches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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