Photo: NASA
Blue Origin’s upcoming BE-3U and BE-4 rocket engines will be tested by Jeff Bezos’ company at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the American space agency announced this week.
As an acceleration of its collaboration with private space companies, NASA signed an agreement with Blue Origin that allows the company to conduct propulsion testing of the two engines before they are to be used as propulsion for at least two rockets.
The Test Stand 4670 in Huntsville where the testing will take place is the one that decades ago was used for the same purpose by NASA, for the development of the Saturn V rocket that put humans on the Moon.
The location is currently out of shape and underutilized, and Blue Origin will have to refurbish it, at its own expense, to be able to use it. The company will also pay “direct costs NASA incurs as a result of Blue Origin use of the stand.”
“This test stand once helped power NASA’s first launches to the Moon, which eventually led to the emergence of an entirely new economic sector – commercial space,” said in a statement NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard. “Now, it will have a role in our ongoing commitment to facilitate growth in this sector.”
The two engines to be put through their paces will be used to power some of the machines that will eventually put humans of the Moon and on Mars.
The BE-3U is a variant of the first new liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket engine to be developed for production in America in over a decade. The engine will be capable of developing more than 1 million horsepower.
The BE-4, five times more powerful than the BE-3, will power United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket scheduled to take off in 2021 at the latest, but also and Blue Origin’s New Glenn. New Glenn is also scheduled to launch in 2021.
The Test Stand 4670 in Huntsville where the testing will take place is the one that decades ago was used for the same purpose by NASA, for the development of the Saturn V rocket that put humans on the Moon.
The location is currently out of shape and underutilized, and Blue Origin will have to refurbish it, at its own expense, to be able to use it. The company will also pay “direct costs NASA incurs as a result of Blue Origin use of the stand.”
“This test stand once helped power NASA’s first launches to the Moon, which eventually led to the emergence of an entirely new economic sector – commercial space,” said in a statement NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard. “Now, it will have a role in our ongoing commitment to facilitate growth in this sector.”
The two engines to be put through their paces will be used to power some of the machines that will eventually put humans of the Moon and on Mars.
The BE-3U is a variant of the first new liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket engine to be developed for production in America in over a decade. The engine will be capable of developing more than 1 million horsepower.
The BE-4, five times more powerful than the BE-3, will power United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket scheduled to take off in 2021 at the latest, but also and Blue Origin’s New Glenn. New Glenn is also scheduled to launch in 2021.
Google News