Blue Origin Completes First BE-4 Engine Hotfire Test in ‘Rocket City’
Producing 550,000 pounds of thrust, the BE-4 engine is Blue Origin's most powerful yet.
(Huntsville, Alabama (“Rocket City”)) Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin completed its first BE-4 engine Hotwire test at Huntsville, Alabama’s – a.k.a. Rocket City – historic Test Stand 4670 this evening; producing 550,000 pounds of thrust, BE-4 is Blue Origin’s most powerful engine ever.
Clip from a video of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine hotfire test this evening in Huntsville, Alabama (“Rocket City”) courtesy of Blue Origin on X, @blueorigin.
“A louder rumble in Rocket City!” read a post from Blue Origin’s X account, @blueorigin at 9:06pm EST.
BE-4 is the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled rocket engine ever developed, according to Blue Origin’s website. Using an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle, BE-4 is capable of producing 2,400 kN (550,000 lbf) thrust with deep throttle capability.
Blue Origin’s website explains that BE-4, which is the first ox-rich staged combustion engine made in the United States, will power two vehicles in the next generation of American orbital rockets: seven BE-4 engines will power New Glenn’s reusable booster, and two BE-4 engines will drive the first stage of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan launch vehicle.
The website explains that Blue Origin chose LNG for the BE-4 engine because it is highly efficient, low cost and widely available.
“Unlike kerosene, LNG can be used to self-pressurize its tank," reads the website. “Known as autogenous repressurization, this eliminates the need for costly and complex systems that draw on Earth’s scare helium reserves.”
Diagram of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine courtesy of Blue Origin.
In the 1960s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tested Saturn V engines at the same Redstone Arsenal test stand as Blue Origin is currently using for its BE-4 tests, according to AL.com; Blue Origin has modified and renovated the historic stand under an arrangement with NASA. As a function of its bottomless water supply from the Tennessee River, the stand is a famously safe way to fire a rocket engine and flood it in seconds if needed, per AL.com.
