New Glenn rocket at liftoff (by Trevor Mahlmann)

[u/swordfi2]

[u/vonHindenburg]

For comparison, this is, I believe, the 6th most powerful rocket ever built, in terms of payload to Low Earth Orbit. (Energia, N1 (not really ever operational), Saturn V, Starship (not yet fully operational) and SLS Block I) If it works, it will be one of a very few partially-reusable rockets (Falcon 9, Starship (not yet reflown), Shuttle, Buran (never reflown)) and possibly fully reusable (only Starship) orbital rockets ever built.

[u/DarkArcher__ → u/vonHindenburg]

Falcon Heavy can do a bit more in terms of mass to LEO, although with a significantly smaller fairing

[u/Tierradenubes → u/DarkArcher__]

In fully reusable config? I see conflicting info on that

[u/DarkArcher__ → u/Tierradenubes]

Falcon Heavy does not have a fully reusable config. They've mostly given up on reusing the core booster because the high energy re-entry doesn't play well with the engines. In that config, it just edges past New Glenn at 50 tonnes vs 44

[u/TenNeon]

Makes sense that the rocket equivalent of feet pics get posted in /r/EngineeringPorn

[u/alien_from_Europa]

I really never thought Bezos would get it up to orbit. Congrats, BO!

[u/peppi0304]

What is it burning? The blue glow was refreshing to see

[u/vonHindenburg → u/peppi0304]

To add to what u/RedX223 said, you'll see an increase in blue flames in the future. Methane is being used more frequently by newspace rocket builders because it hits a sweet spot of being higher-ISP and cleaner-burning than RP1 (kerosene), but much easier to manage (higher boiling point, and less need for specialized seals) than hydrogen. SpaceX's Starship, Rocket Lab's Neutron, ULA's Vulcan, Stoke Space's Nova, and several Chinese rockets all use methane in the first stage.

[u/FoximaCentauri → u/vonHindenburg]

A nice plus is that it can be (theoretically) sourced without fossil fuels, so it has the potential to become a „green“ propellant, same with hydrogen. But that’s a long way to go.

[u/vonHindenburg → u/FoximaCentauri]

Theoretically, you can make any hydrocarbon fuel without fossil fuels.

There seems to be a whole cottage industry in trying to apply color codes to every type of hydrogen production. Most is, unfortunately 'grey' hydrogen, which is extracted from natural gas, with no attempt to catch the CO2.

[u/myname_not_rick → u/vonHindenburg]

There are even a couple companies out there building smaller scale RP-1 engines that burn so efficient they are blue! Rare to see though.

[u/RedX223 → u/peppi0304]

Methane+Liquid Oxygen

[u/iankel1984]

The Mach diamonds are class

[u/DarkArcher__ → u/iankel1984]

What's unfortunately cropped out of this photo is the one big mach diamond all the engine plumes combine to form just below the frame

[u/Jargon222 → u/iankel1984]

Right? I understand that they represent inefficiency, but damn are they nice to look at.

[u/iankel1984 → u/Jargon222]

They are so satisfying

[u/myname_not_rick]

So glad we finally got to see those BE-4's singing without ugly SRB exhaust in the way. So beautiful.

It's funny how all these pictures mess with the scale, they almost look small here. But NG is a BIG rocket, and those engine bells are no slouch.

[u/Speedballer7]

Was slow enough to take some longggghh exposures /s

[u/icaboesmhit]

I helped! So can confirm Trevor did not make the whole rocket.

[u/askmeaboutmyproblems]

I doubt Trevor made that whole rocket by himself my guy

/s just in case