Blue Origin Reveals A New Space Tug
Earlier this year in January Blue Origin posted a job opening for a position titled “Blue Ring Senior Program Manager. At the time, this was practically all the information we had on the project. That was until a few days ago when the company announced its plan. Specifically, Blue Origin unveiled Blue Ring, a spacecraft platform focused on providing in-space logistics and delivery.
They also pointed out that Blue Ring is part of a newly formed Blue Origin business unit called In-Space Systems. Here the company seems to be branching out beyond its current operations and mission objectives. The spacecraft is being designed for two primary applications, growing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on orbit.
In reality, there are even more uses for this system as the demand for a modern space tug/multi-purpose vehicle is in high demand. However, this project joins a long list of others for Blue Origin that are in early development and still have a ways to go before being operational. Here I will go more in-depth into this new spacecraft, what makes it unique, its place within Blue Origin’s business, and more.
New Space Tug
On October 16th, Blue Origin released a small update on the new vehicle they’re developing and exactly what it’s meant for. They are quoted saying, “The platform provides end-to-end services that span hosting, transportation, refueling, data relay, and logistics, including an “in-space” cloud computing capability.” In other words, Blue Origin is trying to create a very versatile spacecraft that can rendezvous with existing satellites or in-orbit tech, and provide a large list of services depending on the mission needs.
Some of its primary features make this hardware fall into the category of a space tug. A space tug is described as a type of spacecraft used to transfer spaceborne cargo from one orbit to another orbit with different energy characteristics. An example would be moving a spacecraft from a low Earth orbit (LEO) to a higher-energy orbit like a geostationary transfer orbit, a lunar transfer, or an escape trajectory. In a lot of cases, satellites, once launched, have a very limited ability to maneuver and adjust using their own propulsion and propellant. A space tug can help extend a satellite’s mission lifetime significantly and bring it back to life in some scenarios.
With this being said, one of the aspects of Blue Origin’s design that makes it unique will be its size. The company is quoted saying, “Blue Ring can host payloads of more than 3,000 kg and provides unprecedented delta-V capabilities and mission flexibility.” In addition, Lars Hoffman, vice president of government sales at Blue Origin commented, “Blue Ring is rather large, but when it’s integrated, it can fly inside of the current 5.4-m (18-ft.) fairings of National Security Space Launch-class vehicles, like Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Vulcan—and it can certainly fly on New Glenn, with a 7-m fairing.” “It’s launch-vehicle agnostic,” he said. With this in mind, it will be a serious piece of equipment with significant capabilities as it will hold much more propellant, feature stronger engines, generate more power, etc.
“Currently, the commercial marketplace is still very much sending payloads and satellites to predictable orbits,” Hoffman said. “Some of the new markets are looking to be more dynamic. That’s one of the things Blue Ring is really attuned to—it can do a lot of different things” he said.
Looking at the one image provided by Blue Origin, you can see two massive deployable solar arrays and a host of different payloads. It was revealed that these solar panels will stretch 144 feet (44m). The platforms will be powered by a hybrid chemical and solar-electric propulsion system, designed and mostly manufactured by Blue Origin. “It’s taking advantage of the best of both systems,” Hoffman said. “You have the energy of chemical propulsion to get you from point A to point B more quickly and you have the electric propulsion for station-keeping, or if you wanted to save on energy for transferring from one orbit to another.” Based on the description it sounds like it will also act like a large in-space server helping with connectivity and computing.
“Blue Ring addresses two of the most difficult challenges in spaceflight today: growing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on-orbit,” said the Senior Vice President of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems. “We’re offering our customers the ability to easily access and maneuver through a variety of orbits cost-effectively while having access to critical data to ensure a successful mission,” he added.
If successful, this project would become somewhat of a one-of-one system within the industry. While there have been a lot of space tug designs and different assisting spacecraft over the years, the scale and purpose of Blue Ring would make it much more capable than other options. As far as when this vehicle is supposed to be ready, Hoffman commented, “We have interest in launches in 2024-25. “I think the realistic first launch of Blue Ring will be 2025. We’re going to let the market dictate how rapidly this grows” he said.
Another Project For Blue
While exciting, Blue Ring now joins a long list of other Blue Origin projects that are in the works. Between returning New Shepard to flight, New Glenn’s maiden launch, BE-4 development, and Orbital Reef, the company has a very full plate. Some question whether the start of a new unique project is a good idea or will only pull resources and time away from existing endouvers.
In regard to this, Blue Origin suggests that this project falls into the hands of a different division meaning it should have no impact on other projects. Also, based on the expected launch date, it sounds like Blue Ring has already made a decent amount of progress. They mentioned an interest in launching in 2024 which is not far away by any means. In reality, we will have to wait and see over the next few months as other projects continue to develop.
Currently, Blue Origin has some significant milestones right around the corner. A few months ago we got an update that the company was planning on launching an uncrewed New Shepard flight sometime in October. It seems that the mission may have been delayed as they continue to work on the vehicle since its last mishap over a year ago. Arguably even more important is the first launch of Vulcan which is still scheduled to happen just two months from now in December.
Just over a week ago ULA CEO Tory Bruno tweeted saying, “Looks like #VulcanRocket’s first flight Centaur V has finished up in final assembly and is making its way to the HPTC to verify all the helium plumbing.” This comes after a weakness in the tank dome was found that the company needed to fix. With that complete, soon the upper stage will arrive back at the launch site and prepare to lift off. Even though Vulcan only uses two BE-4 engines, this will still be the first flight of the hardware. A few months ago they performed well in a static fire but that was a quick test.
Right now, Blue Origin is trying its best to create more flight-capable BE-4 engines than ever before. With current and future demand soaring, what once was an engine stuck in development, is now expected to be the backbone of hundreds of future missions. Besides comments from Tory, videos from the company show tens of BE-4 engines in production with nozzles littering the factory floor. This highlights the future demand the company has. Even though no BE-4 has flown yet, they are being produced in mass at the factory. This is because assuming things somewhat stay on schedule for Vulcan and New Glenn, once these vehicles start flying, they are going to keep flying very frequently. The Vulcan in particular will need a lot of these engines in the next few years.
Project Kuiper for example, Amazon’s satellite service, selected Vulcan for 38 launches. By 2026, Amazon’s FCC license requires that at least half of the satellites are in orbit and operational. This suggests that a majority of Vulcan’s launches will be expected to happen before 2026. Since Vulcan is expendable, every launch means two more BE-4 engines are needed. It’s possible the total 38 launches require 76 BE-4 engines. The one exception is the fact that ULA plans to reuse Vulcan’s BE-4 engines in the future. However, this plan is meant for the future and Tory Bruno has pointed out that they won’t work on this system until Vulcan has begun flying consistently.
In reality, it has been a very long journey for Blue Origin to get where they are today in regard to the BE-4 engine. For around a decade now the company has been developing and manufacturing BE-4. In the past, there were some issues with the engine timeline and delivery to ULA. In August 2020, ULA CEO Tory Bruno stated that the second test BE-4 would be delivered soon, followed quickly by the first flight-qualified ones. He noted an ongoing issue with the BE-4’s turbopumps. At the time, Blue Origin was still troubleshooting the 75,000-horsepower pumps that bring fuel to the BE-4’s main combustion chamber, Bruno said, adding that he was confident the issues would be resolved soon. In October, Bruno stated that the issue was resolved and that the engine was moved into production. Eventually, he got the engines which performed well and completed a Vulcan static fire. Now with Blue Ring, Blue Origin has its work cut out and a lot of timelines to meet.
Conclusion
Blue Origin just unveiled a new spacecraft meant to assist satellites and other in-orbit vehicles in a bunch of different ways. Named Blue Ring, it’s designed to fit within New Glenn’s fairings and change some of the current space operations. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.