HKGalden時事臺
發表文章發起投票
美國企業藍色起源成功測試全尺寸BE-4液氧甲烷火箭引擎
https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/10/20/worlds-largest-methane-fueled-rocket-engine-test-fired-by-blue-origin/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhiI08HzIM0

Blue Origin has conducted the first hotfire test of its BE-4 rocket engine in West Texas, a powerplant fueled by liquified natural gas and liquid oxygen that will power the company’s heavy-lift New Glenn rocket and perhaps United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan launcher, officials announced Thursday.

The company released a six-second video of the test-firing, showing the engine from four angles. A Blue Origin spokesperson did not respond to questions on the hotfire test, and officials did not disclose the duration of the test or the engine’s throttle setting.

Backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin has developed the BE-4 engine with mostly private funding for multiple uses.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, set for an inaugural launch around 2020, will have seven BE-4 engines on its first stage, and a single BE-4 engine on its second stage. United Launch Alliance has tapped the BE-4 as the primary engine option for the Vulcan rocket, a replacement for the company’s Atlas 5 rocket scheduled to debut around the end of 2019.

The reusable BE-4 can produce 550,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, making it the highest-power methane-fueled rocket engine ever built. SpaceX is working on its own high-performance methane-burning engine, called the Raptor, which company chief Elon Musk said last month will generate around 380,000 pounds of sea level thrust.

The BE-4 hotfire test is a significant milestone in the engine’s development after Blue Origin started developing the powerplant in 2011. Blue Origin originally intended the BE-4 to produce about 400,000 pounds of thrust for its own commercial New Glenn launcher, but ULA partnered in the engine’s development in 2014, and engineers scaled it up to produce nearly 40 percent more thrust.

“Congratulations to the entire Blue Origin team on the successful hotfire of a full-scale BE-4 engine,” ULA said in a statement. “This is a tremendous accomplishment in the development of a new engine.”
Good0Bad0
2017/10/21, 11:12:59 上午
本貼文共有 0 個回覆
此貼文已鎖,將不接受回覆
發表文章發起投票