Engineers at Blue Origin have actually been facing a relatively everlasting argument that includes the New Glenn rocket and the economics of flying it.

The dispute returns a minimum of 15 years, to the early conversations around the style of the heavy lift rocket. The very first phase, obviously, would be totally recyclable. What about the upper phase of New Glenn, powered by 2 big BE-3U engines?

Around the exact same time, in the early 2010s, SpaceX was likewise trading the economics of recycling the 2nd phase of its Falcon 9 rocket. Ultimately SpaceX creator Elon Musk deserted his objective of a totally multiple-use Falcon 9, picking rather to recuperate payload fairings and lower production expenses of the upper phase as much as possible. This method worked, as SpaceX has actually decreased its internal launch expenses of a Falcon 9, even with a brand-new 2nd phase, to about $15 million. The business is now concentrated on making the bigger Starship rocket totally multiple-use.

New Glenn is a fair bit bigger than the Falcon 9 lorry, 98 meters in height compared to 70 meters, and with a 7-meter size compared to the Falcon 9’s 3.7 meters; however it is likewise smaller sized than Starship. Appropriately Blue Origin has actually fought with whether to recycle the New Glenn upper phase or to look for to ruthlessly cut its production expenses.

Upses and downs of the argument

For many years, this internal dispute has actually waxed and subsided.

A little more than 5 years earlier, Blue Origin began a task to establish a multiple-use stainless-steel upper phase called “Project Jarvis.” This effort was later on deserted. In the run-up to the very first launch of New Glenn in early 2025, both the business’s creator, Jeff Bezos, and CEO, Dave Limp, informed Ars in an interview that they were continuing to trade the alternatives on New Glenn’s upper phase, referred to as GS2.

A brand-new task publishing recommends the argument might be swinging back towards recycling GS2. The task, for a director of “Reusable Upper Stage Development,” was published Thursday by the business.