KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Blue Origin has announced two upgrades for its New Glenn rocket that are intended to reduce manufacturing costs and expand the vehicle’s ability to deliver payloads to geostationary orbit and the Moon. The company says the changes could eventually help New Glenn support more than 1,000 launches per year.
“The demand for launches has never been this high,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said Thursday at the UP.Summit conference at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida.
The company has begun test-firing a new engine called Northstar, which is expected to replace the BE-4 engines that power New Glenn’s first stage. Blue Origin is also developing a hydrogen-and-oxygen-powered third stage that would give the rocket additional capabilities.
Northstar is designed to lower engine costs
Limp described Northstar as a simplified and more powerful version of the BE-4. According to Blue Origin, the new engine will use half as many parts, weigh 30 percent less, and have approximately 65 percent of its components produced through 3D printing.
Blue Origin expects to manufacture Northstar engines at 25 percent of the cost of a BE-4. The company also aims eventually to assemble each engine in a single day. Development and testing are already well underway, and the company has started a Northstar test-firing campaign.
“To access space at a lower cost, we need to look at every part of the spacecraft,” Limp said. “This is going to be a game changer.”
The BE-4 currently produces 640,000 pounds of thrust, while Northstar’s initial version is expected to generate 715,000 pounds. Like the BE-4, Northstar uses an oxygen-rich staged-combustion cycle and a single-shaft turbopump architecture to burn methane and liquid oxygen.
BE-4 production will continue
Blue Origin will continue manufacturing BE-4 engines for United Launch Alliance. Two BE-4 engines are used to power ULA’s Vulcan rocket.
A new third stage for New Glenn
Separately, Blue Origin is developing a third stage for New Glenn that will use hydrogen and oxygen. The company says the stage, known as GS3, will provide additional benefits as the rocket expands its payload-delivery capabilities to geostationary orbit and the Moon.
Source: arstechnica.com