United Launch Alliance chooses Blue Origin methane rocket engine for new rocket
United Launch Alliance, the space company in which the American arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin and aircraft manufacturer Boeing work together, has selected the BE-4 rocket engine from Blue Origin for its new Vulcan Centaur rocket. This engine uses methane for propulsion.
The Lockheed Martin and Boeing company has announced it has selected the BE-4 engine to power the Vulcan Centaur’s first rocket stage. United Launch Alliance had a choice of the largely US Air Force-funded AR1 rocket engine from the American company Aerojet Rocketdyne and the Jeff Bezos-funded BE-4 engine from Blue Origin. United Launch Alliance had previously selected Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RL10 engine for the Vulcan Centaur’s upper rocket stage.
It concerns the rocket called Vulcan Centaur, which should make its maiden flight from mid-2020. According to United Launch Alliance, this is a revolutionary rocket that will make space travel affordable and reliable. The company reports that the Vulcan Centaur will surpass existing missile capabilities and launch services at a significantly lower cost. Compared to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the rocket can take heavier payloads into low Earth orbit.
The BE-4 rocket engine should eventually also make it into Blue Origin’s large New Glenn rocket, which will put both humans and commercial satellites into orbit and have a fully reusable rocket first stage. This rocket engine uses methane as fuel and is a relatively very powerful rocket engine. The BE-4 engine is nearly three times as powerful as SpaceX’s Merlin rocket engine. Elon Musk’s company uses nine in the Falcon 9; the Vulcan Centaur will only get two BE-4 engines. Methane is relatively new as a rocket fuel; Earlier, some members of the US Congress still described the BE-4 engine as ‘unproven technology’.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is best known for the plans for the tourist space trips with the New Shepard system. Bezos has already indicated that he will put as much money into Blue Origin as it takes to get the New Glenn rocket off the ground. That rocket will use seven BE-4 copies and will then compete with the Vulcan Centaur, among other things.
Render of the Vulcan Centaur