Last week, Blue Origin launched its first interplanetary mission, two spacecraft bound for Mars. It also performed its first successful landing of its New Glenn rocket’s booster stage. On the wave of that success, the Jeff Bezos-owned private space company has announced it will go bigger. It plans to have a more powerful version of New Glenn.
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New Glenn has two stages: a reusable booster and an upper stage that burns up in the atmosphere once it has brought material into orbit. Its current configuration has seven liquid fuel rocket engines, called BE-4, and two BE-3U engines on its second stage. The new New Glenn will have nine BE-4s and four BE-3Us, and will be called New Glenn 9×4, with the current version being dubbed 7×2.
This would be a super-heavy lift version of today’s New Glenn. The 7×2 can carry 45 metric tons (99,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit, which already puts it in competition with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy in terms of costs under certain conditions. The 9×4 is expected to carry over 70 metric tons (154,000 pounds), significantly more than even the fully expendable version of the Falcon Heavy. If the rockets are not getting recovered, they can carry more mass in terms of payloads and less fuel.
“The next chapter in New Glenn’s roadmap is a new super-heavy class rocket. Named after the number of engines on each stage, New Glenn 9×4 is designed for a subset of missions requiring additional capacity and performance. The vehicle carries over 70 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, over 14 metric tons direct to geosynchronous orbit, and over 20 metric tons to trans-lunar injection. Additionally, the 9×4 vehicle will feature a larger 8.7-meter fairing,” Blue Origin said in a statement.
A scaled comparison posted to X by Blue Origin Chief Executive Dave Limp shows that New Glenn 9×4 will be taller than Saturn V. This would make it at least 12 meters (37 feet) taller than New Glenn 7×2 and close to the height of SpaceX’s Starship, which, in its current configuration, is 123 meters (404 feet). Starship would be the direct competitor and should be capable of carrying more payload, but it is far from ready.
Starship is supposed to be the lunar lander for the NASA-led missions Artemis III and Artemis IV. Various delays and a series of catastrophic tests earlier this year led acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy to call on other companies to provide a human lander to try and keep the mid-2027 deadline for Artemis III. This has led to a public tiff between Duffy and SpaceX’s CEO, Elon Musk, though leaked SpaceX documents confirm that in the best-case scenario, Starship won’t be ready before September 2028.
Blue Origin is preparing an alternative lander called Blue Moon, which was supposed to be ready for 2030 and Artemis V. It is expected to be tested in space early in 2026. Will it be ready for Artemis III? This remains an unknown, but Blue Origin is making overtures at the Trump administration, talking about plans for the Moon and the construction of the Golden Dome’s network of hundreds of satellites.
Source Link: Blue Origin Just Revealed Its Latest New Glenn Rocket And It's As Tall As SpaceX's Starship
