Blue Origin says it is building a higher-performing rocket engine at 1/4 the cost

Blue Origin announced two upgrades to its New Glenn rocket that aim to cut manufacturing costs and boost payload capacity. The company has begun test firing the Northstar engine, which will eventually replace the BE-4 engine powering New Glenn's first stage.

Northstar has half the parts of the BE-4, 30 percent less mass, and about 65 percent can be 3D-printed. Blue Origin believes it can manufacture Northstar at 25 percent of the cost of a BE-4 engine and eventually assemble each engine in less than a day. Northstar will deliver 715,000 pounds of thrust compared to the BE-4's 640,000 pounds, and like the BE-4, it burns methane and liquid oxygen.

Blue Origin will continue making the existing BE-4 engine for United Launch Alliance, which uses two engines to power its Vulcan rocket.

The company is also developing a hydrogen-oxygen third stage called GS3 for New Glenn. A GS3-equipped New Glenn 7x2 variant can carry 8 metric tons directly to geostationary orbit and 10 metric tons to translunar injection. The larger 9x4 variant can carry 14 tons and 20 tons respectively.

Blue Origin recently completed its first composite liquid hydrogen tanking test at Launch Site One in Texas, pressurizing the 5.5-meter diameter tank to 100 percent of maximum force for 2.5 hours and testing it at 150 percent for 10 minutes. Chief Executive Officer Dave Limp said the company aims for a GS3 debut in 2028 for a government customer. "We have one customer signed up for cislunar space in 2028," Limp said.