As a redundant economist I think they are tube/plate heat exchangers for the building air conditioning. So nothing rocketory but yes they will be pretty cool and maybe out in a space on the roof. An amateur psychologist might suspect that subliminally you already knew this by your 'Pretty cool' comment.
Clay Mowry was the featured speaker at the WSBR luncheon on Friday. He specifically stated that the New Glen vehicle with 1st stage reusability could meet all 9 reference missions for the EELV LSA contract. Stated that the design changes to the second stage (two BE-3U engines and stretched tank) were done specifially to meet these requirements. Plans for a 3rd stage are no longer needed near term and is deferred pending future requirements.
With regard to the direct GEO/performance calculation issue, NASA LSP was told recently NG could do 14.0 tons to Earth escape (ESL2). Naively scaling that based on other launch vehicles with hydrolox upper stages, GTO payload capacity is probably in the vicinity of 18-24 tons, but maybe someone can calculate more accurately using the 14 ton figure to calibrate.
BE-3U is no longer tap-off, they changed to expander a while back. First time we (the public) deduced that was a few weeks ago when a BE-3U image...
New Glenn Payload User’s Guide arrived via inboxes this morning. See attached.
Third stage still planned for the future (just not addressed in this user's guide). Interesting!
They still want to use it for lunar missions, so there is a need for 3rd stage. This may also double as reuseable OTV. For LEO HSF I think a reuseable US is also on the todo list.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 11/26/2018 05:27 pmThey still want to use it for lunar missions, so there is a need for 3rd stage. This may also double as reuseable OTV. For LEO HSF I think a reuseable US is also on the todo list.A reusable 2nd stage would pretty much obviate the need for a 3rd stage.
Quote from: envy887 on 11/26/2018 05:35 pmQuote from: TrevorMonty on 11/26/2018 05:27 pmThey still want to use it for lunar missions, so there is a need for 3rd stage. This may also double as reuseable OTV. For LEO HSF I think a reuseable US is also on the todo list.A reusable 2nd stage would pretty much obviate the need for a 3rd stage. A reuseable US would need multiple tanker launches to fill it as it has so much more dry mass than 3rd stage. For BLEO payloads in 5-15t range a 3rd stage is better option.