Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin has announced its plans to build the most powerful and super heavy variant of the New Glenn rocket in a bid to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The development of a new rocket, called New Glenn 9x4, was announced after New Glenn’s second mission launched last week.
The name represents the increased amount and position of engines as nine engines will power its first stage and four engines on its second stage.
"The next chapter in New Glenn's roadmap is a new super-heavy class rocket," Blue Origin said in a statement.
The new Glenn 9x4 will be equipped with the power to lift 77 tons of payload to low Earth Orbit, as compared to the 7x2 variant that can lift 50 tons. Moreover, the new variant will also have an even bigger payload fairing of 28.5 feet compared to 23 feet.
Upon asking about the timeline to launch this powerful Glenn variant, Blue Origin refused to disclose a specific timeframe. But the design from our 7x2 variant can really help us to build this rocket quickly.
Blue Origin CEO, Dave Limp posted a picture on X, demonstrating New Glenn 9x4 variant taller than Saturn V, the 17-story rocket that sent humans to the moon under the U.S. Apollo program.
According to the company, “The two New Glenn variants will serve the market concurrently, giving customers more launch options for their missions, including mega-constellations, lunar and deep space exploration, and national security imperatives such as Golden Dome."
Besides Blue Origin, other US companies, including SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and United Launch Alliance are pursuing plans to build larger rockets in order to put bigger satellite constellations into space.