It was reported that Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos), once again successfully completed the test of the large rocket engine BE-4, and then shipped it to United Launch Alliance (ULA) for use. to assemble the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle.
The Vulcan Centaur, a heavy-lift rocket, is one of three next-generation launch vehicles currently in development in the United States, and the first that could enter service next year. The BE-4 engine successfully passed the test for up to four and a half minutes, which also covers the time it will spend in flight.
Like the Raptor engine that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX uses on its Starship, the BE-4 uses methane as fuel.
Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, shared a video of the BE-4 test on Twitter, and he also shared a video of the BE-4 simulating the full launch and ignition at the end of last month. These tests marked a key milestone in the development of the BE-4, as they confirmed that all components were able to withstand the stress of an actual launch.
The BE-4 is also the main engine used on the Vulcan and New Glenn rockets, making it vital to the U.S. space program. The New Glenn rocket is Blue Origin’s heavy-lift launch vehicle, which uses seven BE-4s on the first stage and has a maximum thrust of 3.8 million pounds (about 1723 tons).
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Using four BE-4 engines to generate 1.1 million pounds (499 tons) of thrust, the Vulcan rocket is a replacement for United Launch Alliance’s Delta rocket, which uses Russian-made engines.
The BE-4 is also one of the largest rocket engines in the United States, as it produces more thrust than the RS-25 engines in the SpaceX Raptor and AeroJet Rocketdyne. The three rockets will power rockets over the next 10 years, with a single Raptor, BE-4 and RS-25 producing 510,000 pounds (about 231 tons), 540,000 pounds (about 245 tons) and 512,000 pounds, respectively pounds (about 232 tons) of thrust.
However, despite the BE-4’s greater thrust, the SpaceX Starship launch vehicle ultimately took the crown as the world’s largest rocket. That’s because Starship will use 33 Raptor 2 engines to generate a massive 7.5 million pounds (3,402 tons) of thrust. Currently, SpaceX’s largest rocket is the Falcon Heavy, which bundles three Falcon 9 boosters for a total of 27 Merlin 1D engines capable of producing 5.1 million pounds (2,313 tons) of thrust.
Rocket and engine development need to go hand in hand, and the size of the engine is often dictated by the rocket’s design goals. Starship is classified as a super-heavy rocket because it was designed to be a gateway to Mars. To do this, the upper stage that separates after the rocket leaves most of Earth’s gravity needs to be larger and accommodate more payload. This increases the overall weight of the rocket and requires the rocket itself to be larger.
On the other hand, neither the Vulcan Centaur nor the New Glenn rockets are designed for this kind of mission, although they should also be capable of sending payloads to Mars, just like any other large launch vehicle. Vulcan’s maiden flight is expected next year, and SpaceX is actively developing its rocket in Texas, where the company will conduct the much-anticipated static fire test of all 33 engines simultaneously.
