Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On October 31, Blue Origin, a space company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos), once again successfully completed the test of a large rocket engine BE-4, and then shipped it to the United launch Alliance (ULA) to assemble Vulcan Centaur carrier rockets.

Vulcan Centaur, a heavy rocket, is one of the three next-generation carrier rockets currently being developed in the United States, and it is also the first carrier rocket that may be put into use next year. The BE-4 engine successfully passed a four-and-a-half-minute test, which covers the time it will spend in flight.

Like the Raptor engines used in his starships by SpaceX, owned by Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, BE-4 uses methane as fuel.

Tory Bruno, CEO of United launch Alliance, shared the test video of BE-4 on Twitter, and he also shared a video of BE-4 simulating the ignition of a full launch at the end of last month. These tests mark a critical milestone in BE-4 development because they confirm that all components can withstand the pressure of actual launch.

The BE-4 is also the main engine used on Vulcan and New Glenn rockets, making it crucial to America's space program. The New Glenn rocket is a blue-originated heavy launch vehicle that uses seven BE-4 in the first stage with a maximum thrust of 3.8 million pounds (about 1723 tons).

The Vulcan rocket uses four BE-4 engines to generate 1.1 million pounds of thrust, an alternative to the United launch Alliance Delta rocket, which uses Russian-made engines.

The BE-4 is also one of the largest rocket engines in the United States because it generates more thrust than the SpaceX Raptor and AeroJet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines. The three rockets will power rockets over the next decade, with a single Raptor, BE-4 and RS-25 generating 510,000 pounds, 540,000 pounds and 512,000 pounds of thrust, respectively.

However, despite the stronger thrust of the BE-4, the SpaceX starship carrier rocket eventually won the crown of the world's largest rocket. This is because the starship will use 33 Raptor 2 engines to generate 7.5 million pounds (3402 tons) of thrust. At present, the SpaceX's largest rocket is the Falcon heavy rocket, which bundles three Falcon 9 boosters and has a total of 27 Merlin 1D engines, capable of generating 5.1 million pounds (2313 tons) of thrust.

Rocket and engine development need to go hand in hand, and the size of the engine is often determined by the design goals of the rocket. Starships are classified as super-heavy rockets because they are designed as a gateway to Mars. To this end, the superiors separated by the rocket after leaving most of the earth's gravity need to be larger and accommodate more payloads. This increases the overall weight of the rocket and requires the rocket itself to be bigger.

On the other hand, neither Vulcan Centaur nor the new Glenn rocket was designed for such a mission, although they should also be able to send payloads to Mars, just like any other large launch vehicle. Vulcan's first flight is expected next year, and SpaceX is actively developing its rockets in Texas, where it will conduct highly anticipated static ignition tests on all 33 engines at the same time.

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