How Is BE-4 Engine Development Progressing?
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 the backbone of hundreds of future missions. This bump in production will need to be nearly perfect as rockets such as ULA’s Vulcan and eventually New Glenn begin to fly.
Blue Origin has two main factories producing these engines among others, one in Washington and one in Alabama. Recently we learned that one of the company’s relatively new factories is starting to outperform the other and a lot faster than expected. This is a good sign for the company and a pattern they will need to keep up.
While the BE-4 engine test stand explosion a few months ago was not ideal, Blue Origin and Tory Bruno assured everyone that it was human error rather than a problem with the engine itself. By now they have moved past that anomaly and are focusing on maximizing engine production. Here I will go more in-depth into the current engine production, what the future demand will look like, whether or not Blue Origin can keep up, and more.
Factory Progress
A few years ago in 2020, Blue Origin opened its rocket engine production facility in Huntsville, AL. In a statement, the company was quoted saying, “The world-class engine manufacturing facility in The Rocket City will conduct high rate production of the BE-4 and BE-3U engines. These engines will undergo testing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center on the historic Test Stand 4670.”
Blue Origin also pointed out that they would add more than 300 jobs to the local economy with an investment of over $200 million in the facility. Not long after opening the facility, the company posted a video in the same factory. This revealed a very barren facility with small amounts of equipment and engines in production. In the past Blue Origin had commented that they were beginning to increase production but this is the first we’ve seen. Specifically, back in October of last year, the company was quoted saying, “Dozens of these engines are now in production to support a large and growing demand for civil, commercial, and defense launches.
Now over three years since this factory was opened, it has managed to produce more engines than expected. Recently, Tory Bruno shared some images within the factory and pointed out that a Vulcan Cert2 engine was in production there. More importantly, someone pointed out that in an interview, Tory had said that the first few sets of engines would be from Kent. But that Cert-2 engine is being built at Huntsville. Tory responded saying, Yes things have changed, Huntsville is coming up faster. In other words, the Huntsville factory is primarily designed for engine production and has performed better than originally thought. By now ULA and Blue Origin were expecting to produce and receive some of Vulcan’s first flight engines from the Washington factory. Instead, the Huntsville facility is now the primary producer which is a good sign.
Besides comments from Tory, even 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. As of right now, not a single BE-4 engine 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.
On the other hand, in April 202, Tory Bruno said that the additional launches purchased by Amazon for the Kuiper satellite constellation would require a higher launch cadence and that this provided support for the business case to go forward with the reuse concept. Either way, Vulcan alone will need a lot of engines before ULA has perfected the process of reusing them.
BE-4 Development
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.
More recently, on June 30th, 2023, a BE-4 engine exploded 10 seconds into testing, resulting in damage to the test stand. The engine was intended for flight on the second Vulcan flight. Since this incident, we really haven’t heard much from the company. After the incident, Tory Bruno clarified, “Sure. Every engine, elex box, COPV, etc, gets an Acceptance Test (ATP) as they come off the line to verify good workmanship. (The one time Qual verifies the design. BE4 is qualified). The BE4’s on Cert1 have passed ATP, as have many others. This engine failed ATP.” This suggests that the issue was indeed caused by bad workmanship and shouldn’t affect the engines that already passed on these tests installed on Vulcan.
He also said, “Relatively routine at the beginning of a production run. Later, however, as the automated shutdown systems get well-tuned in, they become rare. He finished with one last comment that the issue is, “Way less interesting than it sounds. Just an ATP failure. They happen. That’s why we acceptance test each component coming off the line before accepting delivery” he said.
This incident seems to already be on the back burner as they focus on creating more engines. In reality, the BE-4 is a very large and powerful engine that needs to be produced with precision. BE-4 is one of the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled rocket engine ever developed. Using an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle, BE-4 is capable of producing 2,400 kN (550,000 lbf) thrust with deep throttle capability.
Blue Origin also knew that multiple future vehicles that would utilize this engine might want to reuse it. For that reason, BE-4 was designed from the beginning to be a medium-performing version of a high-performance architecture. It’s a conscious design choice made to lower development risk while attempting to meet performance, schedule and reusability requirements. In addition, they chose LNG because it is highly efficient, low cost and widely available. Unlike kerosene, LNG can be used to self-pressurize its tank. Known as autogenous repressurization, this eliminates the need for costly and complex systems that draw on Earth’s helium reserves. LNG also possesses clean combustion characteristics even at low throttle, simplifying engine reuse compared to kerosene fuels.
In the future, Blue Origin should only improve the engine production process and get even faster at creating high-quality BE-4 engines. In the meantime, they are trying to support future demand that will overwhelm them if they are not prepared. In addition to the Kuiper launches, Tory Bruno said, ” “We have to ramp up, before the end of 2025 we expect to be really at a tempo, which is flying a couple of times a month, every two weeks” he said. This amount of engines comes out to around 48 BE-4 engines a year. It’s also important to point out that United Launch Alliance has priority when it comes to receiving these engines. This means that Blue Origin will need to make enough engines for Vulcan and ULA first and then additional ones for each New Glenn booster.
Earlier this year, NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) awarded Blue Origin’s New Glenn the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) contract. ESCAPADE is part of the NASA Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program; it is a dual spacecraft mission to study Mars’ magnetosphere. This launch is scheduled for next year in 2024. While delays are somewhat likely, it will not be long before multiple launch vehicles we need a steady stream of BE-4 engines. If Blue Origin can continue to up production and avoid any testing explosions, they should be able to deliver. However, if they slow down or problems arise, it could create a major setback for both Vulcan and New Glenn.
Conclusion
Blue Origin is trying to produce as many BE-4 engines as possible right now. We recently learned that engine production in Alabama is going better than expected. This is good news for a company that has a lot of work left. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.