New Glenn vs Starship
Blue Origin and SpaceX both bet their futures on big reusable rockets, but they took different risks. New Glenn pairs a reusable booster with a conventional expendable upper stage and reached orbit on its first try; Starship chases full reusability and is iterating through failures on the way.
Rockets5 min
New Glenn
New Glenn is Blue Origin's heavy-lift rocket with a reusable first stage. It reached orbit in January 2025 and landed its booster on its second flight.
Rockets5 min
Starship
Starship is SpaceX's fully reusable super heavy-lift rocket and the largest ever flown, with twelve test flights since 2023 and a Version 3 debut in May 2026.
Key differences
- Reuse ambition: New Glenn recovers its first stage only; Starship intends to recover both stages, which no rocket has done.
- First flights: New Glenn reached orbit on its January 2025 debut; Starship's early integrated flights were deliberate test articles, with orbit-class success arriving on later flights.
- Scale: Starship V3 is a third taller (124.4 m vs 98 m) and targets more than twice the payload.
- 2026 setbacks: both programs lost hardware in 2026, New Glenn in a static-fire explosion that damaged its only pad, Starship in a booster boostback failure on the V3 debut.
Side-by-side specifications
| New Glenn | Starship | |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Blue Origin | SpaceX |
| Country | United States | United States |
| First flight | January 16, 2025 | - |
| Height | 98 m | 124.4 m (V3), 121 m (V1-V2) |
| Diameter | 7 m | 9 m |
| Payload to LEO | 45,000 kg | 100+ tonnes (planned, fully reusable) |
| Stages | 2 | 2 (Super Heavy booster, Starship upper stage) |
| Status | Grounded after May 2026 ground test explosion | In flight testing (12 flights as of July 2026) |
| Total launches | 2 | - |
| First integrated flight | - | April 20, 2023 |
| Engines | - | Raptor, burning liquid methane and oxygen |
| Launch site | - | Starbase, Texas |
Figures come from each article's infobox; see the articles for sources and context.