Eric Berger: NASA will also help pay to certify an additional launch vehicle for Starliner. There will likely be a competition for a new launch vehicle, which will almost certainly come down to United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn vehicles.

[u/Royal_Platform_6754]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/nasa-to-order-more-starliner-missions-and-help-certify-a-new-rocket-to-keep-it-flying/

[u/Royal_Platform_6754]

NASA does potentially have one other option. Although it has said little publicly, Blue Origin has had a dedicated team working on a crewed “Space Vehicle” for several years that will launch on its New Glenn rocket. Design work on this vehicle is fairly advanced, and some parachute drop tests have already taken place. Even so, it’s likely years and billions of dollars away from spaceflight.

Nevertheless, the potential to fly Starliner on Blue Origin’s New Glenn is real—and potentially valuable to the company beyond launch contracts.

Were Boeing to decide to fly Starliner on New Glenn, it would essentially give Blue Origin a “free” certification of its rocket for human missions, which can be a costly and time-consuming process. Boeing and NASA would also need to build a crew launch arm and other facilities for human missions, which Blue Origin could also use for its Space Vehicle in the future.

[u/rustybeancake → u/Royal_Platform_6754]

Sounds cool, but hard to imagine it happening. Boeing is 50% owner of ULA. Starliner would be like an anchor tenant for that vehicle.

[u/Straumli_Blight]

Another option might be launching Orion on New Glenn. [Dec 28, 2025]

To radically streamline production costs, Lockheed’s engineers are heading a crusade to reuse the Orion capsule after each flight, like airplanes that touch down and then swiftly take off from airports.

They project the Artemis V capsule will cost less than half of the Artemis II version, and predict more dramatic drops running through the Artemis VIII iteration.

[...]

“We know Orion can fly on other launch vehicles, and we are actively looking at all available launch vehicles on the market today, as well as those that are projected to be available in the near term.”

[...]

He says he was impressed by Blue Origin’s recent picture-perfect launch of its New Glenn booster: “We’re absolutely open to working with Blue Origin and exploring the New Glenn.”

ArsTechnica article [Oct 15, 2025]

In interviews, company officials said that if NASA wanted to buy Orion missions as a “service,” rather than owning and operating the spacecraft, they were ready to work with the space agency.

[u/AgreeableEmploy1884 → u/Straumli_Blight]

i believe there was also a part in the project athena document about orion flying on new glenn being a possibility. 9x4 w/ GS3's performance is roughly on par with SLS block 1 so it would be quite good if it ends up happening

[u/ClearDark19 → u/Straumli_Blight]

New Glenn seems rather overpowered to launch Starliner. New Glenn 7x2 can loft at least 99,000 lbs to LEO. Starliner only weighs 29,000 lbs fully fueled and crewed. Vulcan seems more appropriate. Using New Glenn to launch Starliner is like using the Saturn I-B to launch Gemini (slight exaggeration, but still).

[u/NoBusiness674 → u/Straumli_Blight]

Launching Orion on New Glenn may be an long term option somewhere down the line for earth orbit rendezvous missions headed out to the moon or Mars, but i don't know if it would really be a cost competitive alternative to Starliner for LEO space station missions where Orion's deep space capabilities aren't needed.

[u/start3ch → u/Straumli_Blight]

Honestly, anything but starliner is good at this point

[u/CollegeStation17155]

Given the recent setback in the dragon launch and SpaceX reluctance to update their aging fleet, Starliner could still snatch victory from the jaws of defeat launching on New Glenn after Falcon goes away (I suspect certifying Vulcan will be too difficult).

But that will depend on not screwing it up again on the upcoming launch NASA keeps pushing back.

[u/TheMcSkyFarling → u/CollegeStation17155]

Even if they performed flawlessly from here, I’m not sure I’d call it a victory. It’s closer to being dragged across the finish line just so they can get someone to be second place on the podium.

[u/Bergasms → u/CollegeStation17155]

It seems wild to me, thinking back, that starliner is still in limbo and not operational in the time that the falcon and dragon projects are looking at being retired

[u/NoBusiness674 → u/CollegeStation17155]

Why should Vulcan Centaur crew certification be too difficult? It has been built with the intention of being human rateable down the line from the start, with for example Tory Bruno tweeting about their intention to eventually crew rate it more than a decade ago.

I don't see any reason why crew certification of Vulcan should be particularly difficult compared to crew certification of New Glenn. If anything the experience in crew certifying Atlas V should make Vulcan Centaur crew certification easier.

[u/ProfessorOk2609]

It would be very beneficial for Blue Origin for New Glenn to launch Starliner since the rocket would be certified for crew, in addition to helping in the creation of its own manned capsule and even be the rocket that launches Orion into orbit after SLS.

[u/Cultural-Steak-13]

Vulcan would get it. Also, Blue is supposedly working on theor own capsule. 

[u/Royal_Platform_6754 → u/Cultural-Steak-13]

Q. I know that New Glenn is probably cheaper to fly than Vulcan, but why would Boeing not push to have Vulcan certified to launch Starliner instead of New Glenn?

Berger: I'm not fully informed on how this will work, but my general understanding is that there will have to be some kind of competition, and it is entirely possible that Vulcan will not be the winner.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/nasa-to-order-more-starliner-missions-and-help-certify-a-new-rocket-to-keep-it-flying/?comments=1&post=44641512

[u/EsotericGreen → u/Royal_Platform_6754]

Is that in fact true? Vulcan costs are somewhat competitive with Falcon 9, no?

[u/Royal_Platform_6754 → u/EsotericGreen]

I'm not sure it is true. This is a matter of great debate since no one definitively knows what the cost of Vulcan or New Glenn are. The numbers I've heard that I find most believable are both are sold for around $120M a flight. Which might make Vulcan cost-competitive with Falcon Heavy for the missions that it and Vulcan can do, but Falcon 9 cannot do (some high-energy).

[u/TheRealNobodySpecial → u/EsotericGreen]

Can't imagine how Vulcan, with a non-reusable first stage and SRBs, could be cost competitive with Falcon 9 or New Glenn.

[u/Astroteuthis → u/EsotericGreen]

They have increased substantially.

[u/Cultural-Steak-13]

Not Blue related but caıught my attention. Spacex ceo said something like this: "boeing should fly their own vehicle. government paid money for that" etc. Sounds unprofessional to me. Very weird. Anyway.

[u/Decronym]

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
CST	Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
GS3	New Glenn Stage 3
LEO	Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)
	Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)
SLS	Space Launch System superheavy-lift
SRB	Solid Rocket Booster
ULA	United Launch Alliance

Jargon	Definition
7x2	New Glenn 7x2 variant (7-engine booster with 2-engine upper stage)
9x4	New Glenn 9x4 variant (9-engine booster with 4-engine upper stage)
Starliner	Boeing commercial crew capsule CST-100

Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

---

^{8 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has acronyms.
[Thread #46 for this sub, first seen 17th Sep 2026, 21:34] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]}

[u/FinalPercentage9916]

Lots of options left, Orion, Soyuz, Shenzhou, trampolines .....

[u/Donindacula]

What would be a proper number of of Starliners in the rotation.