Following last week’s success of Blue Origin’s first interplanetary launch and its first landing of the New Glenn rocket’s first-stage booster, the company has announced plans to transform the rocket into a more powerful beast. And yes, SpaceX will be paying attention.
The new version will be known as New Glenn 9×4, while the current one will now be called New Glenn 7×2, with the new names indicating the number of engines attached to the rocket’s first and second stages.
The two extra BE-4 engines on the New Glenn’s upgraded first stage will give it the ability to lift heavier payloads to orbit, and with the rocket fairing expanding to a width of 8.7 meters, larger payloads will also be possible.
While the New Glenn 9×4 will increase the rocket’s low-Earth payload capacity to 70 tons — an increase of 25 tons over the current version — it’s far less than the 150 tons of SpaceX’s mighty Starship rocket when in reusable mode, and the 250 tons when expending the first stage.
As the Starship is still being tested, a better comparison would be SpaceX’s operational Falcon Heavy rocket, which can carry payloads of around 64 tons to low-Earth orbit. ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, on the other hand, can carry payloads of up to 28 tons.
While Blue Origin hasn’t revealed the specific height of the New Glenn 9×4, renders released by the Jeff Bezos-led company showing the vehicle alongside NASA’s Saturn V Apollo rocket suggest it could be as tall as 120 meters, which is just three meters shorter than SpaceX’s Starship rocket.
The current New Glenn 7×2 rocket will also be receiving upgrades in the form of increased engine power and structural improvements, allowing the company to choose the most suitable vehicle for any given mission.
Blue Origin has yet to share a date for the inaugural flight of the new 9×4 variant, though some reports suggest it could be ready in 2027. Meanwhile, the improvements to the 7×2 variant will be made gradually, with some of them expected to be implemented in time for the rocket’s third flight in the first half of next year.
Blue Origin’s announcement of the larger and more powerful New Glenn 9×4 variant signals intensified competition for SpaceX in the super-heavy lift and lunar mission markets. The exciting development is set to drive further innovation while at the same time offering the broader spaceflight industry more options for high-capacity, reliable, and reusable launch services.
