Blue Origin has unveiled GS3, a new third stage for its New Glenn rocket, along with Northstar, a new liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas booster engine. The company is positioning the upper stage for direct injection into geostationary orbit and Earth-escape trajectories, a step toward expanding the reach of its heavy-lift vehicle.
GS3 is powered by the BE-7 engine, which belongs to the same liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen family used on Blue Origin's Blue Moon lunar landers. The company quotes a vacuum specific impulse above 460 seconds. To keep development streamlined, the stage reuses existing New Glenn components, including the fairing, payload adapters, fluids and avionics. Blue Origin says it has tested a composite liquid hydrogen tank, pressurized to 100 percent of its maximum expected operating pressure for 2.5 hours and also tested at 150 percent for 10 minutes. The company expects this to be the first composite liquid hydrogen tank flown in space.
Blue Origin's performance figures put the 7x2 configuration at up to 8 metric tons to geostationary orbit and up to 10 metric tons to trans-lunar injection. The larger 9x4 configuration is listed at up to 14 metric tons to geostationary orbit and up to 20 metric tons to trans-lunar injection. The company has not yet flown these tanking milestones or engine tests as flight hardware, so the figures remain claims pending demonstration.
The Northstar booster engine is rated at 715,000 pounds-force of thrust, making it the second booster engine after the BE-4, which produces 640,000 pounds-force. Blue Origin says more than 65 percent of Northstar is produced by additive manufacturing, and that the design cuts mass by about 30 percent and parts count by about 50 percent compared with the BE-4. The company also claims final assembly can be completed in under one day, and that the engine moved from approval to testing in 11 months.
The announcements come at a difficult moment for the program. New Glenn has flown three missions so far from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral. The fourth mission, NG-4, was destroyed in a May explosion on the pad during a static fire attempt. Reports indicate a return to flight is planned as NG-4.1 in January 2027. Blue Origin has also set a cis-lunar mission using the GS3 stage for an unnamed government customer in 2028, though the customer has not been identified.