{"id":17971,"date":"2019-08-02T17:16:53","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T09:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-touts-a-full-power-firing-of-blue-origins-next-generation-be-4-rocket-engine\/"},"modified":"2019-08-02T17:16:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T09:16:53","slug":"jeff-bezos-touts-a-full-power-firing-of-blue-origins-next-generation-be-4-rocket-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-touts-a-full-power-firing-of-blue-origins-next-generation-be-4-rocket-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos touts a full-power firing of Blue Origin\u2019s next-generation BE-4 rocket engine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is showing off a picture of his Blue Origin space venture\u2019s BE-4 rocket engine going full blast during a hot-fire test in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBE-4 continues to rack up time on the test stand,\u201d Bezos said in an Instagram post accompanied by a picture of today\u2019s full-power engine test.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" id=\"instagram-embed-0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B0r8hJPH7qE\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=987&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com&amp;rp=%2F2019%2Fjeff-bezos-touts-full-power-firing-blue-origins-next-generation-4-rocket-engine%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1700.5999996326864%7D\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"751\" 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>Getting the BE-4 into operation is crucial to Blue Origin\u2019s space ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket engine, which runs on liquefied natural gas and packs 550,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff, is destined for use on Blue Origin\u2019s orbital-class New Glenn rocket. It\u2019s also supposed to power United Launch Alliance\u2019s next-generation, semi-reusable Vulcan rocket.<\/p>\n<p>Both those rockets are currently scheduled to have their maiden launches in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos\u2019 company tends to play its cards closer to the vest than rival billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, which has been letting its fans pass along real-time streaming video of its Raptor rocket engine test firings and Starship hops in South Texas over the past few months.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin has been testing BE-4 engine components at its West Texas proving ground for more than two years, and the course has not always run smooth. In May 2017, for instance, Bezos acknowledged that a test of the engine\u2019s powerpack went awry, resulting in the loss of hardware.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that he\u2019s sharing a picture of the full-power firing on a summery Friday night suggests that the test program is on track. But it also suggests there are more test firings to go.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos has said more than once that he\u2019s spending $1 billion or more on Blue Origin annually. Just in the past few days, Bezos sold off more than $1.8 billion of Amazon stock, and it\u2019s a sure bet that some of that cash is going toward the BE-4.<\/p>\n<p>When the BE-4 gets an honest-to-goodness thumbs-up, that\u2019ll clear the way for engine production to shift from Blue Origin\u2019s headquarters in Kent, Wash., to a 200,000-square-foot factory that\u2019s currently under construction in Huntsville, Ala. That, in turn, will set the stage for New Glenn rocket assembly to move ahead at Blue Origin\u2019s 750,000-square-foot facility in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line? Keep an eye on Bezos\u2019 Instagram account and Blue Origin\u2019s Twitter account for word that the BE-4 has passed its final test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is showing off a picture of his Blue Origin space venture\u2019s BE-4 rocket engine going full blast during a hot-fire test in Texas. \u201cBE-4 continues to rack up time on the test stand,\u201d Bezos said in an Instagram post accompanied by a picture of today\u2019s full-power engine test. Getting the BE-4 [&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":[4459,509,1046],"class_list":["post-17971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-be-4-rocket-engine","tag-blue-origin","tag-jeff-bezos"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17971"}],"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=17971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}