Blue Origin announced propulsion upgrades for its New Glenn rocket following a successful mission, along with plans for a larger New Glenn 9×4 variant, positioning the company to compete with SpaceX for NASA lunar contracts.
The upgrades target the rocket’s engines on both stages. The booster engines will increase total thrust from 3.9 million pounds-force to 4.5 million pounds-force. This enhancement aims to provide greater power during the initial launch phase, enabling the rocket to carry heavier payloads more efficiently from the launch site in Florida. The upper stage engine thrust will rise from 320,000 pounds-force to 400,000 pounds-force, improving performance once the booster separates and the upper stage continues the trajectory toward orbit or deeper space destinations.
Accompanying these engine modifications, Blue Origin introduced a new reusable fairing, which protects the payload during ascent through the atmosphere and can be recovered for multiple uses, reducing operational costs. An updated lower-cost tank design further optimizes the structure by incorporating materials and manufacturing techniques that lower production expenses without compromising structural integrity or performance under extreme conditions.
Because you asked… pic.twitter.com/HRbQjRpHWC
— Dave Limp (@davill) November 20, 2025
Blue Origin states that the upgraded New Glenn will serve customers for missions to low-Earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond. This capability expands the rocket’s versatility, allowing it to support satellite deployments in low orbits around Earth, as well as transfers to lunar trajectories and potential interplanetary paths, all from its coastal launch facility.
The company’s roadmap features New Glenn 9×4 as the bigger sibling to the current New Glenn 7×2 configuration. This variant incorporates nine engines on the booster stage and four on the upper stage, scaling up the propulsion system to handle significantly larger payloads. Blue Origin specifies that New Glenn 9×4 can lift over 70 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, over 14 metric tons directly to geosynchronous orbit, and over 20 metric tons to trans-lunar injection, providing direct paths to various orbital regimes without intermediate staging.
An image shared by Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp on X depicts New Glenn 9×4 as larger than NASA’s Saturn V rocket, which carried astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. This scale places Blue Origin in the same size category as SpaceX’s Starship, which achieved its first payload deployment in August and now approaches retirement as SpaceX advances its next-generation version.
Both Blue Origin and SpaceX seek NASA contracts for future Moon missions. Blue Origin’s focus on lunar objectives appears in its New Glenn press images, which prominently feature the Moon. The company plans to land its unmanned lunar lander on the Moon in 2026, marking an initial step in autonomous surface operations.
