Blue Origin's BE-4 Engine

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Cross post

https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/1336002283558072322

iSpy a pair of BE4 Path Finder engines at the Decatur Rocket Factory. #VulcanCentaur

Edit to add:

twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1336004658050031617

Is one of these the pathfinder delivered in July? When do you expect the first flight-qualified BE-4 to arrive?

https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/1336024208023969794

Yes. Next year

[Lemurion]

Impressive looking engines.

[snotis]

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1339633465076150273

During a call with reporters, Tory Bruno said he expects to receive "flight configuration" BE-4 engines for the Vulcan rocket "this summer." Engine performance is better than asked for, so far.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1339633465076150273

During a call with reporters, Tory Bruno said he expects to receive "flight configuration" BE-4 engines for the Vulcan rocket "this summer." Engine performance is better than asked for, so far.

Worth remembering that in February 2020 Blue Origin said the flight BE-4s would arrive by the end of 2020. I’m not surprised by delays on something as complex / ambitious. 6+ months left suggests still a lot of work and, I imagine, qualification testing to go.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Hopefully we’ll get some test updates before too long

https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/1347942408676368386

Now that is a beautiful sight!  A pair of @BlueOrigin BE4 engines installed on a #VulcanCentaur booster for pathfinding operations in preparation for launch in 2021. #CountdownToVulcan!

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Tweet from Jan 16th (from New Shephard webcast):

https://twitter.com/megsylhydrazine/status/1350264556803612672

The #BE4 engine hotfire test from earlier this week in West Texas 🔥

[Stimbergi]

jeffbezos
Perfect night! Sitting in the back of my pickup truck under the Moon and stars watching another long duration, full thrust hotfire test of @BlueOrigin’s BE-4 engine. #GradatimFerociter

https://www.instagram.com/jeffbezos/

[bombyx]

https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/1361047219923730433

Musical_Tanks
@torybruno I have been looking for specific impulse of BE-4, can't find it. Are you able to say or is it TBD/classified kinda thing?

Tory Bruno
Not yet released.  I can say that it is better than we expected

[Nomadd]

 It seems like with a rocket engine, you'd want exactly what you expected. Anything else means you don't quite know what's going on in there. Could it be pessimistic combustion efficiency assumptions?

[b0objunior]

It seems like with a rocket engine, you'd want exactly what you expected. Anything else means you don't quite know what's going on in there. Could it be pessimistic combustion efficiency assumptions?

You can be optimistic or conservative, better to be the latter.

[Davidthefat]

It seems like with a rocket engine, you'd want exactly what you expected. Anything else means you don't quite know what's going on in there. Could it be pessimistic combustion efficiency assumptions?

You can allocate more mass to your payloads when you have better performance than anticipated.

[Cheapchips]

It seems like with a rocket engine, you'd want exactly what you expected. Anything else means you don't quite know what's going on in there. Could it be pessimistic combustion efficiency assumptions?

You can be optimistic or conservative, better to be the latter.

Being a "medium-performing version of a high-performance architecture" presumably means the latter?

[Redclaws]

It seems like with a rocket engine, you'd want exactly what you expected. Anything else means you don't quite know what's going on in there. Could it be pessimistic combustion efficiency assumptions?

I feel like this is confusing contexts for expectations.  Tory is speaking about expectations based on some set of promises made to him as a customer, based on certain earlier assumptions about what Blue’s engineers would be able to achieve.

They did better.  Tory’s not suggesting they fired up the engine and it was just randomly much better than expected (that would maybe be concerning).  It’s just, at some point, they were able to make it work better than they originally hoped.

I don’t think 2010 SpaceX would’ve told you they thought they expected to get Merlin thrust to its current levels.

[Tomness]

Wasn't the Air Force and ULA that asked Blue to increase the BE-4 From 450,000 lbf to 550,000 lbf. Which helped increase their New Glean from their original internal specs. They might have been able to hit 300-315 Isp

[whitelancer64]

What is the size of the BE3 compared to the BE4?

[kendalla59]

What is the size of the BE3 compared to the BE4?

BE-3 is 490kN vs 2400kN for BE-4, roughly 5 times more thrust.

[DreamyPickle]

SpaceNews quote from Blue Origin regarding BE-4 progress link:

Jones said Blue Origin intends to deliver flight qualified BE-4 engines to United Launch Alliance on time for ULA’s planned maiden launch of its Vulcan rocket late this year. “We’re hot firing regularly and every time you turn around, we’re doing additional tests,” he said. “We have over 11,000 seconds of accumulated test time and we feel confident.”

Seem to still be on track for a 2021 launch of Vulcan, though earlier reports mention delivery "this summer" rather than "late this year". Is the 11000 seconds of test time number new?

[AstroWare]

I wonder if BE4 is going to find any issues once they are clustered. It's being used in two very different enviorments. Dual engine with nearby solids... Tight clustering on New Glenn, especially the center engine.... Retro propulsion...

ULA is at least planning a flight readiness firing I believe  on the pad before launch. (anyone know the planned duration?)

Is New Glenn planning something similar on the Pad?

Just curious. 

[TrevorMonty]

I wonder if BE4 is going to find any issues once they are clustered. It's being used in two very different enviorments. Dual engine with nearby solids... Tight clustering on New Glenn, especially the center engine.... Retro propulsion...

ULA is at least planning a flight readiness firing I believe  on the pad before launch. (anyone know the planned duration?)

Is New Glenn planning something similar on the Pad?

Just curious.

I doubt Vulcan pad test will be much more than few seconds. Their water deluge system is design for few seconds of launch.

Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk

[CorvusCorax]

Crossposting this, as it kinda belongs here. I'm sorta surprised I haven't seen that here yet.

I found this video on the tube that goes a bit into analysing the various components of the BE-4 engine and what they do. Quite informative, and I think quite a bit more rare than info on the Raptor.