With 2 launches in the books, Blue Origin announces even more powerful New Glenn is coming

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Nov 20, 2025

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is powerful, but Jeff Bezos’ rocket company wants more.

After completing a successful second mission of New Glenn, including a launch from Cape Canaveral and landing and the return of its first-stage booster, Blue Origin announced upgrades coming to the heavy-lift rocket as soon as mission No. 3.

“Incredible upgrades to the New Glenn system as we enhance our BE-4 and BE-3U engine performance,” said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp in a post on X.

Increased power on the seven BE-4 engines on the first stage would increase its thrust at liftoff from 3.9 million pounds to 4.5 million pounds.

In comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which is essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together, produces 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. The Saturn V rockets from Apollo produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust while NASA’s Space Launch System rocket for Artemis produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust. SpaceX’s massive Starship and Super Heavy, which has yet to make it to orbit, produces close to 17 million pounds of thrust.

Blue Origin stated the BE-4 engines, which it manufactures for both New Glenn and fellow rocket company United Launch Alliance for its Vulcan rockets, have already been able to handle the planned increase propellant use and power on a test stand.

The company also announced the upper stage engines, known as BE-3Us, will increase power from 320,000 pounds of force for its pair of engines to 400,000 pounds of force, and the company had also successfully run through the increased power for one of its BE-3U engines on a test stand.

“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 stated in a press release. “Additional vehicle upgrades include a reusable fairing to support increased flight rates, an updated lower-cost tank design, and a higher-performing and reusable thermal protection system to improve turnaround time.”

In addition, the company said it would pursue an even more powerful super-heavy version of New Glenn called the New Glenn 9×4, meaning it would have nine BE-4 engines on the first stage instead of seven and four BE-3U engines on the second stage instead of two.

This larger New Glenn would also feature a larger fairing, or nosecone, with a diameter of 8.7 meters, or more than 25 feet, up from the 7-meter fairing, or 23 feet, which is already larger than the standard 5.2 meter, or 17 foot, fairings found on ULA Vulcan and SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

The New Glenn 9×4 would allow flight of 70 metric tons, or 154,000 pounds, to low-Earth orbit, or 14 metric tons, or about 31,000 pounds, to geosynchronous orbit or more than 20 metric tons, or 44,000 pounds, to trans-lunar injection.

In comparison, the Space Launch System rocket current Block 1B version can handle 38 metric tons, or 84,000 pounds, to deep space including the Orion spacecraft and its crew. A planned Block 2 version was designed to launch 46 metric tons, or 101,000 pounds, to the moon or beyond.

SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy’s capacity in its current iteration is promising from 100-150 metric tons, or 220,000 to 330,000 pounds, to low-Earth orbit, which would be significantly less on missions to the moon or Mars.

Blue Origin plans to offer both versions of its New Glenn at the same time.

The company’s next mission, NG-3, had been planned to launch before the end of the year with the uncrewed Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, but company officials have signaled it might slip into 2026.

That would set up the use of its Blue Moon Mark 2, a human landing system, that is on track to support the Artemis V lunar landing mission at the end of the decade, as SpaceX’s Starship is still assigned to support the Artemis III and IV landings.

The company’s New Glenn success, along with SpaceX’s Starship, are among options NASA could consider to augment or replace its SLS rocket for future Artemis missions, something outlined in President Trump’s proposed budget for this year.

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