{"id":17620,"date":"2020-12-04T23:45:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T15:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-shows-off-blue-origins-be-7-engine-and-makes-a-bold-prediction\/"},"modified":"2020-12-04T23:45:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T15:45:50","slug":"jeff-bezos-shows-off-blue-origins-be-7-engine-and-makes-a-bold-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-shows-off-blue-origins-be-7-engine-and-makes-a-bold-prediction\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos shows off Blue Origin\u2019s BE-7 engine \u2014 and makes a bold prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_594849\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-594849\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-594849\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201204-blue2-630x361.png\" alt=\"BE-7 rocket engine test\" width=\"630\" height=\"361\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201204-blue2-630x361.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201204-blue2-1260x722.png 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201204-blue2-768x440.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201204-blue2-1536x880.png 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201204-blue2.png 1779w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-594849\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s BE-7 rocket engine goes through a test firing. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos heralded progress on the development of the rocket engine that\u2019s destined for use on the lunar lander that his Blue Origin space venture is building \u2014 but he also offered a glimpse into his crystal ball for future moon missions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the engine that will take the first woman to the surface of the moon,\u201d he wrote in an Instagram posting about the hydrogen-fueled BE-7 engine.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" id=\"instagram-embed-0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CIYGjZqHVWi\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=987&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com&amp;rp=%2F2020%2Fjeff-bezos-shows-off-blue-origins-7-engine-makes-bold-prediction%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1671.1450000293553%7D\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"755\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"background: white; max-width: 658px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On one level, the Instagram post \u2014 plus parallel updates from Blue Origin via Twitter and the Web \u2014 are focused on a new round of testing for the BE-7 at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>This week, the test program kicked off a new series of tests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo far in this recent campaign, the thrust chamber was tested for a duration of 20 seconds,\u201d Blue Origin said. \u201cThis brings the cumulative testing time on the BE-7 thrust chamber to<em>&nbsp;<\/em>1,245 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Bezos notes, the BE-7 is designed to throttle its power between 2,000 and 10,000 pounds of thrust, which is a key capability for executing a precision landing on the moon. A single BE-7 will power the descent stage for the Blue Moon lander, which is part of the stack for the human landing system being proposed for NASA\u2019s use in its Artemis moon program.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin is leading a \u201cNational Team\u201d of space companies that also includes Lockheed Martin (responsible for the ascent stage), Northrop Grumman (responsible for the transfer element that would maneuver the lander in lunar orbit) and Draper (responsible for avionics).<\/p>\n<p>Which brings us to the deeper level in Bezos\u2019 commentary: The National Team is one of three contenders to provide the Artemis program\u2019s human landing system. SpaceX and an industry team led by Alabama-based Dynetics are also in the hunt.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Artemis Announcement: NASA Selects Human Landing Systems\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dlHJAKIaALg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>NASA hasn\u2019t yet selected which team (or teams) will go on to the next phase of development. And even if multiple teams are chosen, it may not be instantly clear which team would end up building the lander that\u2019s used for the Artemis program\u2019s first crewed mission to the moon, scheduled for as early as 2024.<\/p>\n<p>By saying the BE-7 is \u201cthe engine that will take the first woman to the moon,\u201d Bezos is putting his mouth where his money is. (NASA phrases it as \u201cthe first woman and the next man,\u201d in recognition of the fact that the crew\u2019s likely to be diverse.)<\/p>\n<p>Will Bezos be correct in his prediction that the National Team will win NASA\u2019s competition, and that the Blue Moon lander will set the next team of moonwalkers down on the lunar surface? We\u2019re likely to know more by February, when the space agency chooses who goes on to the next round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s BE-7 rocket engine goes through a test firing. (Blue Origin Photo) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos heralded progress on the development of the rocket engine that\u2019s destined for use on the lunar lander that his Blue Origin space venture is building \u2014 but he also offered a glimpse into his crystal ball for future [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[304,4778,1508,509,2043,4648,625],"class_list":["post-17620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis","tag-be-7-rocket-engine","tag-blue-moon","tag-blue-origin","tag-lunar-lander","tag-lunar-landing","tag-moon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}