Bezos vs Musk: How Blue Origin's New Glenn 9x4 aims to challenge SpaceX's dominance
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket lifts off for its second mission, the NG-2, from Space Launch Complex 36 at the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on November 13, 2025. New Glenn, the towering rocket built by Jeff Bezos's space company Blue Origin, is set to take off on its second mission as competition intensifies with Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Image: Chandan Khanna / AFP
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has unveiled plans to build a bigger, more powerful variant of its New Glenn reusable rocket, giving customers more options, and capable of competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX and other launch companies.
Graphic compares the New Glenn 9x4 rocket with the earlier variant, the SpaceX Starship, and Saturn V.
Image: Graphic News
The New Glenn 9x4 – so-called because of its nine first stage BE-4 and four BE-3U second stage rocket engines – will form part of a family of launch vehicles “giving customers more launch options for their missions, including megaconstellations, lunar and deep-space exploration, and national security imperatives such as Golden Dome” according to Blue Origin.
In contrast, the original New Glenn has seven first stage and two second stage engines. Including a planned engine upgrade – which gives each BE-4 engine an extra 387 kiloNewtons of thrust, and the BE-3U an extra 178kN – the additional two engines per stage on the New Glenn 9x4 gives a total first stage thrust of 25,621kN, capable of lifting a 70 tonne payload into Low Earth Orbit.
The expanded 8.7m-wide fairing has increased capacity by 70% to 820 cubic metres.