So that’s a proposed upgrade from about 2,460 kN to 2,847 kN per BE-4, or about 15-16%. If nothing else it’ll help NG do something other than crawl upwards off the pad. (For reference, Wikipedia says Raptor 1 was 1,810 kN, R2 is 2,260 kN, and R3 will be 2,750 kN.)
Also, this part about the heavy variant just bugs me:
The vehicle carries over 70 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, over 14 metric tons direct to geosynchronous orbit, and over 20 metric tons to trans-lunar injection. Additionally, the 9x4 vehicle will feature a larger 8.7-meter fairing.
Rocket companies saying their paper rockets do something (in the present tense) is terrible. It does nothing yet. It’s a design, not a vehicle. But BO can’t even keep that present-future tense consistent within the same paragraph.
The view from the NSF stream right now looks like the lower section blew open sideways. Maybe they were pressure testing the methane tank and it didn’t go well?