Updated Jan 2, 2025 1:42 PM EST Blue Origin ignited all seven BE-4 engines on New Glenn’s lower stage during a hotfire test on December 27. [Courtesy: Blue Origin] Share this story This weekend, SpaceX’s gargantuan Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster—which stand nearly as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza when stacked—may finally get some competition. Blue Origin’s New Glenn is also a giant among rockets despite having yet to fly. On Friday, though, the Jeff Bezos-owned company completed the rocket’s first full-vehicle hotfire test—the final key step before launch. A few hours earlier, the FAA issued Blue Origin a Part 450 commercial launch license authorizing New Glenn’s maiden flight. According to the agency’s current operations plan advisory, it could launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as early as Sunday at 11:30 p.m. EST. “Well, all we have left to do is mate our encapsulated payload…and then LAUNCH!” said Dave Limp, who took over as Blue Origin CEO about one year ago, in a post on X. “Congrats to the many Blue folks on today's test.” While it doesn’t tower quite as high as Starship, New Glenn’s two stages combined stand about 320 feet, making it one of the tallest spacecraft ever built. Its size is intended to accommodate larger payloads than a typical rocket, such as satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper or scientific instruments to help NASA study Mars. Like Starship, New Glenn’s first stage is designed to be reusable, and the company will attempt to land it similar to how SpaceX caught the Super Heavy booster in October. It runs on seven BE-4 engines powered by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas. During Friday’s hotfire, all seven engines fired for 24 seconds, with about 13 seconds at maximum power. Each produces about 550,000 pounds-force of thrust at sea level. “A single BE-4 turbopump can fit in the backseat of a car,” Limp said on X. “When all seven pump fuel and oxygen from the BE-4's common shaft, they produce enough horsepower to propel two Nimitz-class aircraft carriers at full tilt.” New Glenn’s second stage, which unlike the first is expendable, is powered by three BE-3U engines that use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. These engines, which did not fire during the test, can be reignited in space. The rocket’s inaugural mission, NG-1, is part of a campaign to certify New Glenn with the U.S. Space Force for its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, which handles the country’s most valuable and sensitive military satellites. Other launch vehicles for the NSSL include SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV and Atlas V. New Glenn will lift off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral with Blue Origin’s Blue Ring Pathfinder—a prototype spacecraft designed to host and transport up to 3,000 kilograms of payloads, refuel visiting spacecraft, and enable in-space computing and communications. The vehicle, designed to adjust its orbit and fly an array of different trajectories beyond low-Earth orbit, is being funded by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) for future Department of Defense missions. On NG-1, Blue Origin hopes to demonstrate Blue Ring’s ability to beam communications from space to the ground, among other test objectives. New Glenn’s upper stage will spend about six hours in orbit before being expended. The lower stage, meanwhile, will reverse course and ignite its engines for a landing burn. Blue Origin will attempt to land the booster—nicknamed “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance”—on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. If successful, it would mark only the second time the maneuver has been pulled off on the first go. “We’re going for it, and humbly submit having good confidence in landing it,” Limp said on X in September. “But like I said a couple of weeks ago, if we don’t, we’ll learn and keep trying until we do.” Should NG-1 go off without a hitch, Blue Origin’s Part 450 license authorizes it for flights under the same mission profile for the next five years. An anomaly could prompt an FAA mishap investigation, as was the case following each of Starship’s first three missions. But even if the mission isn’t perfect, it would represent a major milestone for Blue Origin, which first unveiled the name and design of New Glenn nearly a decade ago. Like this story? We think you'll also like the Future of FLYING newsletter sent every Thursday afternoon. Sign up now. Share this story