"The first stage, of course, would be fully reusable. But what about the upper stage of New Glenn, powered by two large BE-3U engines? Around the same time, in the early 2010s, SpaceX was also trading the economics of reusing the second stage of its Falcon 9 rocket. Eventually SpaceX founder Elon Musk abandoned his goal of a fully reusable Falcon 9, choosing instead to recover payload fairings and push down manufacturing costs of the upper stage as much as possible."
"Accordingly Blue Origin has struggled with whether to reuse the New Glenn upper stage or to seek to ruthlessly cut its manufacturing costs. A little more than five years ago, Blue Origin kicked off a project to develop a reusable stainless-steel upper stage known as " Project Jarvis." This initiative was later abandoned. In the run-up to the first launch of New Glenn in early 2025."
Blue Origin has debated reuse of the New Glenn upper stage (GS2) versus cutting manufacturing costs for more than 15 years. The first stage was planned as fully reusable while the upper stage powered by two BE-3U engines remained under consideration. SpaceX previously abandoned second-stage reuse and focused on lowering manufacturing costs instead. New Glenn is larger than Falcon 9 but smaller than Starship, complicating the economics. Blue Origin initiated then abandoned Project Jarvis, a stainless-steel reusable upper-stage effort. A recent job posting for a director of Reusable Upper Stage Development signals renewed focus on GS2 reuse.
Read at Ars Technica
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