Space News by Jeff Foust — June 20, 2019
Blue Origin has performed the first hotfire test of the engine it plans to use on its Blue Moon lunar lander.
Company founder Jeff Bezos tweeted June 19 that the test of the BE-7 engine took place the previous day at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The 35-second test went as expected, he said. “Data looks great and hardware is in perfect condition,†he wrote in the post, which included a video of the test.
The company announced the BE-7 engine during a May 9 event here where Bezos unveiled the updated design of the company’s Blue Moon lander. That lander will be able to carry 3.6 metric tons of cargo to the lunar surface, with a “stretch tank†version increasing that capacity to 6.5 metric tons. That larger version of the lander could also carry an ascent stage to enable crewed missions to the lunar surface.
Blue Moon will be powered by a single BE-7 engine, capable of producing 10,000 pounds-force of thrust and deeply throttleable. The engine uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants, leveraging the company’s experience on the larger BE-3 engine used on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle and upper stage of its New Glenn orbital rocket.
More:
https://spacenews.com/blue-origin-performs-first-test-of-be-7-lunar-lander-engine/
