Is there any evidence that NASA will hold an open competition for the upper stage engine?
Why would they ? Despite all the ramblings about putting 2 or 4 RL-10s in the SLS upper stage, isn't the official SLS upper stage based on the J-2X engine?
There is a RL-10 in the iCPS, with the "i" meaning interim.
Of course, it could be possible to "evolve" the SLS design, and update the upper stage with a new engine, but that would require a complete redesign again.
I'm more interesting in seeing Blue Origin fly this engine lots of times on their own rockets. Would this integrate directly into the New Shepard vehicle for sub-orbital flights ? Then a cluster of these into a separate LV for orbital flights ?
QuoteBE-3 engine was fired at full power for two and a half minutes to mimic a launch, producing 110,000 pounds of thrusthttp://www.space.com/23818-blue-origin-rocket-engine-test-video.htmlThe thrust of about four RL-10s. Anyone else think maybe Blue Origin will be entering for the planned SLS cryogenic upper stage competition?
BE-3 engine was fired at full power for two and a half minutes to mimic a launch, producing 110,000 pounds of thrust
They could build a 7-9 engine 1st stage(ie smaller F9) and offer it to Orbital. Would give orbital a locally produced engine. This would allow Blue Origin enter launch industry piece meal. BO may only sell right to use 1st stage, which would allow them to attempt recovery of it. Between the two of them they could compete against F9 in smaller payloads. A 3core heavy could even take on Delta IV H and F9H.
OrbitalATK might use BE3 for upper stage.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 05/05/2014 12:20 amOrbitalATK might use BE3 for upper stage.Is there evidence of that? Has OrbitalATK indicated they might tap BO for an engine? Has BO stated they'd be interested in giving up the BE-3 to another company?
Quote from: cosmonautdjp on 05/05/2014 12:34 amQuote from: TrevorMonty on 05/05/2014 12:20 amOrbitalATK might use BE3 for upper stage.Is there evidence of that? Has OrbitalATK indicated they might tap BO for an engine? Has BO stated they'd be interested in giving up the BE-3 to another company?From NASA Flight article on Stratolauncher. "This upper stage has been baselined with two Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) RL-10 engines for the development and early flights of the rocket, pending development of a higher thrust LOX-Hydrogen unit."As for whether OrbitalATK are interested in it, I don't know. At 110,000lbs BE-3 is more powerful than 2 RL-10s and most likely cheaper. Quote from BO engineer.“In parallel we'll be developing our orbital space vehicle, with first flights targeted for the 2018 timeframe. That will be developmental flights of our orbital launch vehicle. [Now] we're developing this engine for our New Shepard system and our orbital system, but we think it has applicability to both government and other commercial launch systems as well,” Meyerson concludes.
ULA were developing a new engine with XCOR but if BE3 gets some flight time they may consider.Looks like BO are planning to flying something this year. I think it will be a sub orbital RLV. http://m.technologyreview.com/news/527131/intergalactic-entrepreneurs-prepare-for-blast-off/
The director of business development for Blue Origin, Bretton Alexander, announced his company’s intention to begin test flights of its first full-scale vehicle within the next year. “We have not publicly started selling rides in space as others have,” said Alexander during his question-and-answer session. “But that is our plan to do that, and we look forward to doing that, hopefully soon.”Blue Origin is perhaps the most secretive of the commercial spaceflight companies, typically revealing little of its progress toward the services it plans to offer: suborbital manned spaceflight and, later, orbital flight. Like Virgin, it was founded by a wealthy entrepreneur, in this case Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The company, which is headquartered in Kent, Washington, has so far conducted at least one supersonic test flight and a test of its escape rocket system, both at its West Texas test center.