Blue Origin Chief Executive Officer Dave Limp unveiled two New Glenn upgrades on Nov. 5 at the UP.Summit conference at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida: GS3, a third stage for direct geostationary and Earth-escape missions, and Northstar, a new first-stage booster engine, according to Blue Origin's announcement on X and reporting by Ars Technica.
Ars Technica reported GS3 fits in an interstage, preserving full fairing volume, and that a GS3-equipped New Glenn 7x2 can carry 8 metric tons to geostationary orbit and 10 metric tons to translunar injection, rising to 14 tons and 20 tons on the 9x4. The stage is powered by Blue Origin's BE-7 engine, already used on its lunar landers, Ars said.
At Launch Site One in Texas, Blue Origin completed its first composite liquid hydrogen tanking test, pressurizing the tank to 100 percent of maximum expected operating pressure for 2.5 hours and to 150 percent for 10 minutes, according to Ars.