All articles tagged with #be 4
Blue Origin says a faulty main oxygen valve on a BE-4 engine caused the Florida explosion during a static fire; updated hardware will be manufactured by the end of the month, no injuries were reported, and NASA-backed testing of the upper stage will continue with a goal to fly again by year-end.
Elon Musk offered public support to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin after the New Glenn launchpad explosion was traced to a main oxygen valve on a BE-4 engine. Blue Origin says it will implement valve modifications and retrofit updated hardware to existing engines, with testing and fault-tree analysis underway and updated parts expected by the end of August as the company aims to return to flight later in 2026; the incident caused no injuries and underscores the high-stakes competition in the U.S. launch market, including NASA’s Artemis program and SpaceX’s role in the broader spaceflight ecosystem.
Blue Origin has traced the May explosion of its New Glenn rocket to a liquid oxygen valve on one BE-4 engine, and is conducting extensive tests to understand the failure and inform mitigations. The company plans small retrofits to the valve and has hardware updates ready by the end of the month. Because the BE-4 engine powers ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, the findings could affect that program as well, though ULA has not announced a return-to-flight schedule. Blue Origin remains focused on rebuilding Launch Complex 36 and aiming for New Glenn’s flight return by year’s end.
Blue Origin conducted a roughly 20-second static fire of seven BE-4 engines on a refurbished New Glenn booster (NG-3) as it primes for a weekend launch of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird-7 satellite; the company replaced all seven engines and added upgrades including a thermal protection system, signaling progress in reusing an orbital-class booster after NG-2, while noting no landing pad plans yet and placing the effort in the broader Artemis-era lunar and NASA collaboration context.
The article compares SpaceX's Raptor and Blue Origin's BE-4 rocket engines, highlighting differences in thrust, fuel, efficiency, and real-world application, with Raptor being more advanced in chamber pressure and specific impulse, while BE-4 is more commercially available and has seen successful actual launches.
Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, experienced a setback when its BE-4 rocket engine exploded during testing in June. The explosion destroyed the engine and damaged the test stand infrastructure. The engine was expected to be used on United Launch Alliance's second Vulcan rocket launch. Blue Origin is currently assessing the root cause of the issue and has informed its customer of the incident. The failure may further delay the first Vulcan launch, which was already rescheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. Blue Origin needs to resolve the engine issue to support both Vulcan and its own New Glenn rocket, which is under development.