Tag: BE-4
-
United Launch Alliance rolls out Vulcan pathfinder for fueling tests
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan pathfinder has rolled out to SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral for tank testing as part of a continuing campaign towards the rocket’s maiden flight. While this booster will not be the first to fly, it will have its pathfinder BE-4 engines replaced with flight engines once testing is complete in order to…
-
ULA delivers Vulcan test article to Cape Canaveral for ‘pathfinder’ operations
EDITOR’S NOTE: See additional photos of the Vulcan booster at the bottom of this page. The Vulcan booster for the Pathfinder Tanking Test arrives at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now United Launch Alliance’s first full-scale Vulcan booster with two Blue Origin BE-4 engines arrived at Cape Canaveral Space…
-
ULA, SpaceX win landmark multibillion-dollar launch agreements with Pentagon
Artist’s concept of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Credit: ULA United Launch Alliance and SpaceX beat out Northrop Grumman and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for billions of dollars in U.S. military rocket contracts, and will share the load in launching the Pentagon’s highest-priority national security space missions through 2027, officials announced Friday. ULA, the 50-50…
-
Blue Origin preparing to enter the orbital arena
Blue Origin has been making significant progress on the structures, systems, propulsion, and infrastructure supporting their New Glenn heavy lift rocket. Though the company is traditionally quite secretive about most of their operations, they have recently been revealing more and more information as they work towards a first flight date of no earlier than 2021.…
-
Blue Origin continuing work on New Glenn launch complex, support facilities
Work on Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch complex – LC-36 – is well underway. Recent aerial imagery of Cape Canaveral from NOAA shows how far Blue has come on the launch complex. Meanwhile, the company is also working on an engine factory in Alabama, and a first stage refurbishment facility near Kennedy Space Center. LC-36…
-
NASA, ULA find launch opportunity for inflatable heat shield demonstrator
Artist’s illustration of the the Low Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, spacecraft. Credit: NASA A flight demonstration of an inflatable heat shield that could be used to retrieve reusable engines from United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket, and for the delivery of heavier cargo to the surface of Mars, is…
-
Blue Origin sign up historic test stand for engine testing
Blue Origin has signed a Commercial Space Launch Act agreement with NASA for the use of the historic 4670 test stand at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Despite setting up its own in-house test stands, including one that is being constructed at their Cape Canaveral launch site, Blue Origin is now also set to…
-
Telesat taps Blue Origin to launch broadband satellite fleet
Artist’s illustration of the New Glenn rocket in flight. Credit: Blue Origin Telesat has selected Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket to “play a key role” in delivering potentially hundreds of broadband communications satellites into low Earth orbit under a multi-launch agreement announced last week, as Telesat officials prepare to select between two industrial teams to…
-
Telesat taps Blue Origin to launch broadband satellite fleet
Artist’s illustration of the New Glenn rocket in flight. Credit: Blue Origin Telesat has selected Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket to “play a key role” in delivering potentially hundreds of broadband communications satellites into low Earth orbit under a multi-launch agreement announced last week, as Telesat officials prepare to select between two industrial teams to…
-
Bezos rocket engine selected for new Vulcan rocket
Artist’s concept of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Credit: ULA Ending months of speculation, Blue Origin, a company owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, has won a milestone contract to provide first-stage rocket engines for a powerful new booster being designed by United Launch Alliance to replace its current fleet of Atlas and Delta launchers, the…