BE-4 engine tests continue as ULA waits to make Vulcan engine decision

[Elderberry]

Space News by Jeff Foust — March 3, 2018

As Blue Origin continues tests of its BE-4 engine, United Launch Alliance is keeping quiet about when it might select that engine or an alternative for its Vulcan rocket.

Blue Origin started testing of the BE-4 in October 2017 at its West Texas test site. The company has disclosed few details about the status of that test program since then, but a company official said at the 45th Space Congress here Feb. 28 that the company was making “good progress” on tests of the engine.

“We’re getting longer duration burn times. We’re going though validating the turbomachinery very closely,” said Jim Centore, group lead for orbital mission operations at Blue Origin, during a panel discussion on launch systems at the conference.

Centore didn’t disclose many details about those tests, such as thrust levels or the burn times, either of individual tests or cumulatively. “We’re continuing to make good progress,” he said. “We’ll continue that for the next several months.”

Blue Origin is developing the BE-4 for its own New Glenn launch vehicle, with seven engines in the rocket’s first stage and one in its second. That vehicle, which will be manufactured at a factory the company recently built adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center, will be able to place up to 45 metric tons into low Earth orbit as 13 metric tons into geostationary orbit. The BE-4 engines themselves will be manufactured in a separate facility in Huntsville, Alabama.

More:http://spacenews.com/be-4-engine-tests-continue-as-ula-waits-to-make-vulcan-engine-decision/