Speaking of the Blue Origin of the former world's richest man Bezos , many people sneer at it because its "New Shepard" rocket and suborbital spacecraft can only fly 100 kilometers high and have just broken through Carmen Line, it was called "space tourism" with great fanfare, but a group of people could only experience weightlessness for a few minutes. No wonder netizens called it "faster than going to the toilet", and it was the same as Musk's SpaceX Dragon spaceship's 500-kilometer orbit for three days and two nights. Compared with space tourism, it is really "kindergarten" level.
New Shepard rocket
Bezos and his suborbital spacecraft
However, if you look down on the entire Blue Origin company because of this, you would be totally wrong. You must know that the most powerful methane rocket engine in the United States is not SpaceX The second generation of " raptor " is Blue Origin's BE-4. That's right, BE-4, also called "Blue Engine", is a liquid oxygen methane fuel oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle rocket engine with a thrust of 250 tons and can be used for more than 100 cycles. The current peak thrust of the second-generation "Raptor" is 247 tons, and it is expected to reach 250 tons within the year, so BE-4 is still number one for the time being.
BE-4 engine test run
Blue Origin has been developing BE-4 since 2011. It was formed and tested at 50% thrust in 2017, and then the thrust was increased to 70%, with a stable working time of more than 1800 seconds. However, due to abnormal power, the thrust was never able to exceed 73%, so I practiced in seclusion for a year and a half and redesigned the gas generation and turbine pump systems. Now they are basically mature and finally achieved 100% thrust in May this year. Delivery announced.
The planned installation target of BE-4
BE-4 in the ignition test is, in addition to the "New Glenn" rocket of Blue Origin's single-stage orbit, the "Vulcan" of the United Launch Alliance, which is also the "God of the Universe" The successor of 5. It became the engine of the "Vulcan", but its achievements after defeating SpaceX's "Raptor" second generation, super rocket engine giant Rocketdyne and Russia's RD-180, its strength cannot be underestimated.
BE-4 Blue Engine
However, whether it is BE-4 or Blue Origin, there are indeed some problems. It is backed by Bezos, the former richest man in the world. Funding has never been a problem. Bezos will pay for Blue Origin out of his own pocket every year. Color Origin has invested more than US$1 billion in capital, but it has also developed the habit of seeking comfort and not working as hard as SpaceX. This is a common problem among many large companies.
BE-4 is ready for delivery, but it seems that it has not reached the delivery status
Secondly, the combustion chamber pressure of BE-4 using an oxygen-rich supplementary combustion cycle is only 13.8Mpa, while the "Raptor" has 30Mpa, which also led to its later improvement. Thrust is difficult. The thrust of the second-generation "Raptor" can be increased from 214 tons to 250 tons, and eventually can reach 300 tons, but the BE-4 is basically locked. Moreover, the current installation time of BE-4 has been pushed back again and again, from 2020 to the end of 2021, and then to the fourth quarter of this year. The "New Glenn" and "Vulcan" rockets suitable for BE-4 will be installed within this year. Whether it can successfully achieve its first flight is still uncertain.
These two rockets are not small.
Blue Origin's "Blue Moon" lunar lander has been completely defeated by SpaceX's " Starship ". Although the two companies have been fighting a lawsuit for a long time, they are unable to do so. Back to the days. Although the "New Shepard" rocket and suborbital spacecraft are powerful and have successfully achieved 5 manned flights so far, the technical difficulty is really not impressive compared to the Dragon spacecraft. Therefore, the BE-4 and "New Glenn" rockets, It's almost its only hope for a comeback.
BE-4 engine
"New Glenn" is a heavy-duty launch vehicle with a height of 98 meters and a diameter of 7 meters. The first stage uses 7 BE-4, single-stage into orbit, and a low-Earth orbit payload of 45 tons. The synchronous transfer track has a carrying capacity of 13 tons and can be recycled and reused with high indicators. Unfortunately, in August 2020, Blue Origin suffered another defeat and failed to obtain the procurement contract for the second phase of the "National Security Space Launch Plan". Under the influence of SpaceX's winner-take-all, the "New Glenn" rocket The outlook is not promising.
The outlook for New Glen is not promising
