Blue Origin has to try to separate after a New Glen rocket explodes and catches fire on its launch pad. Jeff Bezos’ company wants to demonstrate that it is one of the leading companies in the space industry. For this reason, it presented an engine for its rockets that promises to be much more powerful, but at 25% of the normal production price.
North Star. This is the name of the engine that will complement and replace the traditional BE-4 in the first stage of the Blue Origin rocket. It has half the number of parts, 30% less mass and about 65% of its parts can be 3D printed, which greatly reduces costs. With all this, the company hopes to be able to assemble each engine in less than a day.
As fuel, the Northstar will burn liquid methane just like the BE-4, but with greater thrust. The conventional engine has a power of 290 tonnes, the new Blue Origin offering 324 tonnes.
Second proposition. In addition to this new engine for the first stage of some of its rockets, Blue Origin also announced that they are working on a third stage called the GS3. It runs on hydrogen and oxygen, the BE-7 engine already used by the company’s lunar module. Although it fits inside the interstage and does not reduce the volume under the cowl, not all rockets will have it. It provides a third boost for further propulsion, so it will be incorporated by payloads in geostationary orbit or beyond Earth. For example, this would be ideal for translunar injections.
Coordination with the third stage. The third phase may be operative with any of the first and second configurations. Calculations have been made for a 7×2 and a 9×4. With 7 BE-4 engines in the first stage and 2 BE-3Us in the second, with the addition of the third stage, it will be possible to transport 8 tons to geostationary orbit and 10 tons to translunar injection. On the other hand, a version with 9 BE-4 engines and 4 BE-3U engines can carry 14 and 20 tons respectively.
Light materials. The third stage is made of composite-like materials, which provide good performance, but are very light. The problem is that the hydrogen molecules are too small and escape easily. Initially there was doubt as to whether the composite could sustain potential leaks when the pressure was increased. Fortunately, in the tests done so far it has withstood pressures of up to 100% for 2.5 hours and even 150% for 10 minutes.
Already have a date. For now, all these new components are in the testing phase, although there is already a date for their debut. If all goes well, the third stage could be incorporated into the New Glenn rocket in 2028. As for Northstar, there is no date yet. What is known is that the traditional BE-4 will continue to be used on ULA’s Vulcan. With the New Glenn, its performance will surely increase, as more and more customers are willing to increase their payloads with this rocket. Blue Origin aims to launch 1,000 a year. This could be a good start.
Photo | US Space Force photo by Gwendolyn Kerzen
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