Blue Origin supersizes New Glenn rocket to send heavier payloads to Earth orbit and beyond

Just a week after a successful launch of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it will make New Glenn even heavier.

The new super-heavy-lift variant of Blue Origin’s most powerful rocket, known as New Glenn 9×4, will feature nine methane-fueled BE-4 engines on the first stage, up from seven; and four hydrogen-fueled BE-3U engines on the second stage, up from two. The 9×4 rocket will also have a bigger fairing, or nose-cone section, measuring 8.7 meters (28.5 feet) wide, as opposed to 7 meters (23 feet) for the fairing currently in use.

Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin says it’s working to enhance the performance of the rocket engines on both the New Glenn 9×4 and the standard 7×2 model. Other upgrades will include a reusable fairing, a lower-cost tank design and a higher-performing thermal protection system.

The upgrades will be phased into upcoming New Glenn missions starting with the next launch, which is expected to occur early next year. “These enhancements will immediately benefit customers already manifested on New Glenn to fly to destinations including low Earth orbit, the moon and beyond,” the company said today in an online update.

Customers can choose between the variants for missions to low Earth orbit (including satellite launches for the Amazon Leo internet mega-constellation); to the moon and deep space (including next year’s Blue Moon Mark 1 uncrewed lunar landing); and for national security missions such as the proposed Golden Dome missile defense system.

Blue Origin said the 9×4 model will be capable of carrying more than 70 metric tons to low Earth orbit (vs. 45 tons for the 7×2), more than 14 tons to geosynchronous orbit, and more than 20 tons on a trip from Earth to the moon. That would make New Glenn 9×4 more powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket (64 tons to LEO), but less powerful than SpaceX’s Starship (100 to 150 tons to LEO).

The enhancements appear likely to up the ante in Blue Origin’s competition with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. New Glenn has been launched only twice, as opposed to hundreds of launches for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and scores of launches for ULA’s Atlas 5. But last week’s successful launch of twin probes to Mars and the first-ever recovery of an orbital-class New Glenn booster have raised Blue Origin’s profile in the launch industry.

That booster, nicknamed “Never Tell Me the Odds,” flew itself back to a touchdown in the Atlantic Ocean atop Blue Origin’s recovery barge, which was named Jacklyn in honor of Jeff Bezos’ mother. This week the booster was brought back to port and transported to the company’s processing facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida, with Bezos looking on.