Blue Origin Delivers First of Two BE-4 Engines Tto ULA for Vulcan Centaur Rocket Written 2 July 2020
The first BE-4 engine to be hotfire tested, 18 Oct. 2017. | Wikipedia; CC BY-SA 4.0
Space News reports that this week, Blue Origin “delivered a BE-4 rocket engine to” United Launch Alliance, which plans to use two of those engines “in the main stage of its future” Vulcan Centaur rocket. A Blue Origin spokesperson said, “The engine delivered is the first pathfinder engine to be mated with the Vulcan Centaur and will support ULA’s testing. ... We are planning on delivering the second engine in July.” The BE-4 is a development engine that “uses liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas propellants” to generate 75,000 horsepower. ULA “set a 2021 target to fly its first Vulcan Centaur mission and needs two production-quality engines to build the launch vehicle for that mission.”
Full Story (Space News)