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The commercial space race is heating up, with private companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX pushing the boundaries of rocket technology and reusability in their quest to dramatically reduce the cost of access to space. Two of the most ambitious and capable rockets currently under development are Blue Origin’s New Glenn and SpaceX’s Starship.
While both are massive, partially or fully reusable heavy-lift launch vehicles, they differ significantly in their technical specifications, operational capabilities, and long-term vision. New Glenn is optimized as a versatile, cost-effective rocket for launching large payloads to Earth orbit, while Starship is designed as an all-purpose spacecraft capable of transporting massive cargo and hundreds of people to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
This article takes an in-depth look at how New Glenn and Starship stack up across key dimensions like size, payload capacity, propulsion, reusability, and more.
Size Comparison
Both New Glenn and Starship are among the largest and most powerful rockets ever built, dwarfing all current operational vehicles:
- New Glenn stands 321 feet (98 meters) tall, with a diameter of 23 feet (7 meters). The first stage accounts for 188.5 feet (57.5 meters) of the total height, and the second stage 76.9 feet (23.4 meters).
- Starship, when stacked on the Super Heavy booster, towers at nearly 400 feet (120 meters) tall with a diameter of 30 feet (9 meters). The Starship spacecraft itself is 165 feet (50 meters) tall.
So while both are huge rockets, the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle is about 25% taller and 30% wider than New Glenn. This size difference allows Starship to accommodate significantly larger payloads in terms of both mass and volume.
Payload Capacity
A rocket’s payload capacity – the maximum mass it can deliver to a target orbit – is one of the most important metrics. And it’s here that Starship really outclasses New Glenn:
- In its baseline reusable configuration, Starship is designed to deliver over 100 metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO), over 100 tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) with orbital refueling, and 100+ tons to the surface of the Moon or Mars.
- New Glenn, in comparison, is expected to lift 45 tons to LEO and 13 tons to GTO in a partially reusable mode (with the first stage recovered).
So Starship offers more than double New Glenn’s LEO payload and nearly 8 times the GTO payload with full reuse. Even in fully expendable mode, New Glenn’s capacity is still significantly lower than Starship’s.
Propulsion
Both vehicles use high-performance, next-generation rocket engines developed in-house, but they differ in propellant choice and engine cycle:
- New Glenn’s first stage is powered by 7 BE-4 engines that burn liquified natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LOX). The BE-4 is an oxygen-rich staged combustion engine that produces 550,000 lbf of thrust at sea level.
- The Starship/Super Heavy stack uses SpaceX’s Raptor engines that burn liquid methane and LOX. Raptor is a full-flow staged combustion engine, a more advanced and efficient but complex cycle. Each Raptor produces about 500,000 lbf of thrust at sea level.
- Super Heavy will use 33 sea-level optimized Raptors, while Starship has 3 sea-level and 3 vacuum-optimized Raptors.
So New Glenn’s first stage produces about 3.85 million lbf of total thrust, while Super Heavy generates a whopping 16.5 million lbf – over 4 times more. This gives Starship a significant edge in lifting very heavy payloads.
Reusability
Reusability is key to reducing launch costs and increasing flight rates. Both New Glenn and Starship employ vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) for recovery, but to different degrees:
- New Glenn’s first stage is designed to be reusable, using aerodynamic control surfaces and landing legs to perform a propulsive vertical landing on a ship at sea, similar to SpaceX’s Falcon boosters. The second stage is expendable.
- Starship, on the other hand, is fully reusable – both Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft are designed to land vertically for rapid reuse. The spacecraft also has a novel skydiver-like belly-flop reentry maneuver using four aerodynamic flaps.
Blue Origin is targeting a minimum of 25 flights for New Glenn’s first stage. SpaceX envisions Starship/Super Heavy to be rapidly and repeatedly reusable, ultimately aiming for passenger airline-like operations with multiple flights per day and per vehicle.
Operational Capabilities
New Glenn and Starship are highly capable vehicles but optimized for different operational regimes:
- New Glenn is a classic two-stage rocket designed to launch large payloads like satellites, space probes, modules and more to LEO, GTO, cislunar orbits and beyond. Its voluminous 7-meter fairing can accommodate payloads too wide for existing rockets.
- Starship is more of an integrated transportation system. In addition to satellite launches, it can deliver cargo and people to LEO, the Moon, and Mars. Starship can serve as a long-duration crew spacecraft, lunar lander, planetary transport vehicle, on-orbit propellant depot, and more.
Starship’s versatility comes from its unique integrated design (spacecraft + booster), full reusability, and orbital refueling capability, which allows it to transport large payloads to high-energy orbits and distant destinations that would otherwise require an expendable super heavy-lift rocket.
Development Status
As of April 2024, both New Glenn and Starship are still in development and testing, with first orbital launches expected in the near future:
- Blue Origin is currently assembling the first New Glenn vehicles at their factory in Florida. Pathfinder tanks have been tested and BE-4 engines are being qualified. An initial launch is planned for late 2024 from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral.
- SpaceX has built and tested several full-scale Starship prototypes at their Starbase facility in Texas. After a successful high-altitude flight test in May 2021, SpaceX is testing the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle.
Both programs have faced technical challenges and delays, which is not uncommon for clean-sheet rocket development. But SpaceX seems to be further ahead, with more flight hardware built and tested. Still, a lot can happen as both vehicles approach their critical initial launches.
Specifications Table
Here is a summary table comparing the key specifications of New Glenn and Starship:
| Specification | New Glenn | Starship/Super Heavy |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 321 ft (98 m) | ~400 ft (120 m) |
| Diameter | 23 ft (7 m) | 30 ft (9 m) |
| Stages | 2 | 2 |
| LEO Payload (reusable) | 45 t (99,000 lb) | 100-150 t (220-330 klb) |
| GTO Payload (reusable) | 13 t (29,000 lb) | 100+ t (220+ klb)* |
| Lunar/Mars Payload | N/A | 100+ t (220+ klb)* |
| First Stage Engines | 7 x BE-4 | 33 x Raptor |
| Second Stage Engines | 2 x BE-3U | 3 x Raptor + 3 x RVac |
| Propellants | LNG/LOX, LH2/LOX | LCH4/LOX |
| Thrust (liftoff) | 3.85 Mlbf (17.1 MN) | 16.5 Mlbf (73.3 MN) |
| Reusability | Booster only | Fully reusable |
*with orbital refueling
Summary
Blue Origin’s New Glenn and SpaceX’s Starship represent the next giant leap for reusable heavy-lift rockets. With their immense size, payload capacity, and reusability, they could revolutionize access to space.
New Glenn is a highly capable partially reusable rocket optimized for launching large payloads to Earth orbits at lower costs than expendable vehicles. Its huge fairing and high-energy upper stage enable complex high-value missions.
Starship is more ambitious – a fully reusable, multipurpose transportation system for sending massive cargo and hundreds of people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Rapid reusability and orbital refueling are key to its unprecedented deep space capabilities.
While both rockets still have to prove themselves in flight, it’s clear they will open up exciting new possibilities in spaceflight, from mega constellations and space tourism to lunar bases and Mars colonies. The competition between Blue Origin and SpaceX will only accelerate innovation and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
The space race is on, and with New Glenn and Starship leading the charge, the sky is no longer the limit – it’s just the beginning. In the coming years, expect to see these game-changing rockets launching on a regular basis, ushering in a new era of low-cost, reliable access to space for a wide range of missions and customers. The future of spaceflight looks bright indeed.
10 Best-Selling Books About Elon Musk
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Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century
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Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors
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SpaceX: Elon Musk and the Final Frontier
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The Elon Musk Method: Business Principles from the World’s Most Powerful Entrepreneur
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Elon Musk: A Mission to Save the World
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SpaceX: Starship to Mars – The First 20 Years
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SpaceX: Elon Musk and the Final Frontier
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SpaceX From The Ground Up: 7th Edition
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Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
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The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
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Space Race 2.0: SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, NASA, and the Privatization of the Final Frontier
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