New Glenn: A Giant Rocket That Could Send Humans To Mars

Jeff Bezos, the Chairman of the space company Blue Origin LLC is really up for something big and optimistic and that is the new giant rocket that would blast people into High-Earth orbit and lead them to the planet, Mars. The next conqueror other than the SpaceX rockets is called the New Glenn, which is named after the iconic 1960s astronaut John Glenn, the first American who orbited the planet Earth.

The secretive space company created by Jeff Bezos offered a look at its newest rocket design https://t.co/x1WLCTJ9Op

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 13, 2016

According to CNET, New Glenn is about 313 feet tall with seven main engines and could deliver 3.85 million pounds of thrust. It's more powerful than the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, the current victor that can deliver 2.1 million pounds.

The Blue Origin has spent four years in developing and building the New Glenn rocket. They plan the giant rocket to blast off by the end of the decade. The billionaire Jeff Bezos said that the planned rocket is conceptualized to launch commercial satellites and to fly humans into space. He further said that a three-stage version and its advanced hydrogen-powered engine "is capable of flying demanding...missions "beyond the relatively low orbit of the international space station, as noted by Market Watch.

Meanwhile, David Hewitt, a rocket scientist that own a private aerospace and defense company said that big rockets such as the New Glenn or NASA's Space Launch System, can put bigger pieces into space at a time. He added that it's not just cheaper in term of fewer launches, it's also safer and it means fewer things to dock together in space, fewer failure modes, more efficient and more reliable.

Is there an apparent match that would likely occur between the Blue Origin and SpaceX? The answer remains to be seen as SpaceX have been planning to launch the Falcon Heavy, which could deliver 5 million pounds of thrust in the coming time. There are also planning several Heavy launches with no particular dates yet.

For now, Bezos said that they believe "slow is smooth and smooth is fast." He further said that in the long run, deliberate and methodical wins the day and you do things quickest by never skipping steps. He added that they intend New Glenn to fly for the first time before the end of this decade in the Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral in Florida.