{"id":499839,"date":"2023-07-12T07:53:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T05:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=499839"},"modified":"2023-07-12T21:21:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T19:21:09","slug":"new-blue-origin-rocket-caught-fire-during-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/499839-new-blue-origin-rocket-caught-fire-during-testing.html","title":{"rendered":"New Blue Origin rocket engine caught fire during testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Blue Origin LLC\u2019s next-generation rocket engines caught fire during testing late last month, an issue that could delay its delivery to a key customer.<\/p>\n

The incident involved a BE-4 engine and occurred at Blue Origin\u2019s West Texas facility.<\/p>\n

The Jeff Bezos-backed company didn\u2019t explain what exactly happened, but said there were no injuries and it was narrowing down the cause.<\/p>\n

The customer set to receive the engine is a primary launch provider for the US Department of Defence called United Launch Alliance.<\/p>\n

Its chief executive officer, Tory Bruno, said in a message the BE-4 unit would probably have to be scrapped after the engine \u201ccaught fire and was severely damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruno added failures aren\u2019t uncommon in so-called acceptance testing, which Blue Origin must complete to ensure the engine is ready for use.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Blue Origin BE-4 engines<\/p><\/div>\n

The CEO also\u00a0suggested<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on social media the issue could be resolved with a quick fix.<\/p>\n

However, a severe enough problem could push back delivery timelines.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin said it still expects to meet its engine-delivery commitments this year.<\/p>\n

It also said it has identified a \u201cproximate cause\u201d and is working on remedial actions, without providing further details.<\/p>\n

The BE-4 incident was first\u00a0reported<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0by CNBC. The news site referred to the mishap as an explosion that occurred 10 seconds into the engine test, citing people familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n

Vulcan Flights<\/h2>\n

Blue Origin has been developing the BE-4 for the last decade as a primary engine for the company\u2019s future New Glenn rocket, designed to take satellites \u2014 and eventually people \u2014 into Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin is also supplying the BE-4 engine to ULA for use in the company\u2019s future Vulcan rocket, which is expected to take its debut flight later this year.<\/p>\n

ULA planned to use the BE-4 that experienced the testing issue as one of the two main engines on the Vulcan\u2019s second flight.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin said that \u201cULA was immediately made aware\u201d of the issue.<\/p>\n

Last year, Blue Origin delivered the engines for the Vulcan\u2019s upcoming debut flight, far later than expected.<\/p>\n

Those BE-4s have successfully passed acceptance testing and are qualified to fly the mission, according to ULA.<\/p>\n

A ULA company spokesperson said last month\u2019s fire doesn\u2019t affect that flight, called Certification-1.<\/p>\n

The debut Vulcan launch is one of two missions that ULA will perform to certify the vehicle for national security space missions.<\/p>\n

Certification-1 will carry two satellites for an Amazon.com Inc. initiative to boost broadband access, called Project Kuiper.<\/p>\n

It will also carry a lunar lander developed by Astrobotic Technology Inc. and a memorial payload for a company called Celestis Inc.<\/p>\n

Now read: Virgin Galactic completes first paid tourist flight to edge of space<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jeff Bezos-backed company didn\u2019t explain what exactly happened, but said there were no injuries and it was narrowing down the cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":499843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[87793,38896,21199,65914,77492,81973,85347,2770],"class_list":["post-499839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-be-4-engine","tag-blue-origin","tag-cnbc","tag-project-kuiper","tag-rocket-launches","tag-united-launch-alliance-ula","tag-us-department-of-defence","tag-vulcan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499847,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499839\/revisions\/499847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}