Blue Origin New Glenn
The most recommended of 5 launch vehicles
Heavy-lift rocket that has flown successfully and recovered its booster, adding launch capacity; critics doubt cost claims and point to delays and failures.
Heavy-lift rocket that has flown successfully and recovered its booster, adding launch capacity; critics doubt cost claims and point to delays and failures.
45 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 62%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Impressive engineering and hard feat
“New Glenn production is a lot more classical aerospace in terms of a high tech cleanroom factory being built from the start”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “New Glenn Update” “Insane that it took a decade for another company to do it, but better late than never.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” “the teams there pulled off one of the hardest feats in all of spaceflight”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” - Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try”
Higher payload capacity than Falcon
“The New Glenn 9x4 has a higher targeted payload capacity that an expended Falcon Heavy.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “New Glenn Update” “New Glenn significantly increases the capacity to Low Earth Orbit”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” “Their payload fairing volume is a new capability.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” Strong second launch provider
“think having a strong second launch provider is a good thing. Hope Blue Origin catches up even more”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” “new glenn will only make the space industry as a whole better”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” “Blue Origin has now destroyed SpaceX's cost advantage.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” Successful early orbital launches
“I'm more impressed by them being (probably...) 2-for-2 on their very first couple orbital launch attempts.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try” “Really super glad to see they have hardware that has successfully done all the things.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Frequent delays and slow development
“Blue Origin's tortoise slow-and-steady approach to development ia increasingly looking stupid.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test” “Now they're looking at significant delays to a network that's already years behind Starlink.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn explodes on the pad during static fire test; no injuries” “The longer it takes for Blue Origin to work out the flaws in their system”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Why the failure of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is so catastrophic” - Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try”
Failures damage launch infrastructure
“High profile failures that take out launch infrastructure are undesirable because the cost to that is much much higher than just losing the rocket.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test” “If you don't have high profile failures like this, you aren't taking enough R&D risk.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test” Performance and cost claims unproven
“That New Glenn is more economical then Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy is a huge assumption and I will only believe it when I see it.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test” “it doesn't even have the same payload capacity that Falcon Heavy had eight years ago”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test” “New Glenn's engines are quite a bit less efficient than those at SpaceX.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Starship V3” Relies on Bezos funding
“They are hobby project for the richest man on the planet and they don't compete for investment $ with other companies like RocketLab.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test” “They remain a complete nonplayer that exists only through the good fortune of endless and clearly unconditional Bezos bucks.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “New Glenn Update”
Other launch vehicles people recommend
The four most recommended other launch vehicles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Origin New GlennThis page | 28 | 17 | 62% | 6 | — | — |
| Falcon Heavy | 16 | 4 | 80% | 11 | — | Approved |
| SpaceX Falcon rockets | 13 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Rocket Lab launch services | 11 | 2 | 85% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ariane 6 | 11 | 14 | 44% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 53 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Take 'first flight' with a massive grain of salt. And the 'return to flight' with a smaller amount.”
“designing around Starship or New Glenn”
“That New Glenn is more economical then Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy is a huge assumption and I will only believe it when I see it.”
“They are hobby project for the richest man on the planet and they don't compete for investment $ with other companies like RocketLab.”
“I really don't think there's anything particularly derisked about NG + Blue Moon 2 compared to Starship HLS.”
“The longer it takes for Blue Origin to work out the flaws in their system”
“High profile failures that take out launch infrastructure are undesirable because the cost to that is much much higher than just losing the rocket.”
“Blue Origin's tortoise slow-and-steady approach to development ia increasingly looking stupid.”
“If you don't have high profile failures like this, you aren't taking enough R&D risk.”
“it doesn't even have the same payload capacity that Falcon Heavy had eight years ago”
“Now they're looking at significant delays to a network that's already years behind Starlink.”
“New Glenn's engines are quite a bit less efficient than those at SpaceX.”
“arguably equal to Super Heavy given they've also recovered and reused their heavy booster”
“after the coming New Glenn launch”
“technologies like Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn getting ready, the future is bright!”
“Falcon Heavy and now New Gleen can do most things SLS can”
“He congratulates Jeff Bezos for New Glenn, and rightly so”
“"Or seems like the poster child for second system syndrome."”
“They remain a complete nonplayer that exists only through the good fortune of endless and clearly unconditional Bezos bucks.”
“That seems pretty promising”
“New Glenn production is a lot more classical aerospace in terms of a high tech cleanroom factory being built from the start”
“The New Glenn 9x4 has a higher targeted payload capacity that an expended Falcon Heavy.”
“Thing that doesn’t exist yet will have better specs than thing that’s been in use for over 7 years!”
“Their payload fairing volume is a new capability.”
“think having a strong second launch provider is a good thing. Hope Blue Origin catches up even more”
“they still could use this gigantic working rocket as a (probably still) very cost effective to transport things into space”
“Blue Origin has now destroyed SpaceX's cost advantage.”
“the teams there pulled off one of the hardest feats in all of spaceflight”
“New Glenn isn't bringing any new capabilities to the table.”
“New Glenn significantly increases the capacity to Low Earth Orbit”
“It's quite an elegant machine.”
“new glenn will only make the space industry as a whole better”
“new glenn seemed to take forever compared to starship”
“Im pretty impressed at how simple that idea is”
“controllers lost telemetry from the stage sometime after the entry burn started”
“We should be impressed they did it before their patent expired.”
“Insane that it took a decade for another company to do it, but better late than never.”
“Really super glad to see they have hardware that has successfully done all the things.”
“I'm more impressed by them being (probably...) 2-for-2 on their very first couple orbital launch attempts.”
“the rocket itself cut through”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.