Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin Thursday said it will build a bigger, more powerful variant of its New Glenn rocket, drawing early plans for a family of orbital satellite launchers akin to the fleet of Falcon rockets from Elon Musk's dominant SpaceX.
The new rocket, announced on the heels of New Glenn's second mission that launched last week, will be called New Glenn 9x4, a name referencing nine engines that will power its first stage and four engines on its second stage. That is an increase of two engines for each stage from New Glenn's current design.
"The next chapter in New Glenn's roadmap is a new super-heavy class rocket," Blue Origin said in a statement outlining other rocket upgrades.
The two New Glenn variants, the company said, "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."
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