BE-3U
| Country of origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Blue Origin |
| Status | Completed development; first flight test in 2015 |
| Liquid-fuel engine | |
| Propellant | Liquid oxygen / liquid hydrogen |
| Cycle | Combustion tap-off |
| Performance | |
| Thrust | 490 kN (110,000 lbf) |
| Used in | |
| New Shepard suborbital vehicle, New Glenn orbital launch vehicle(third stage) | |
The BE-3 (Blue Engine 3) is a LH2/LOX rocket engine developed by Blue Origin.
The engine began development in the early 2010s, and completed acceptance testing in early 2015. The engine is being used on the Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital rocket, for test flights which began in 2015. The engine is under consideration by United Launch Alliance (ULA) for use in a new second stage, the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, in ULA's Vulcan orbital launch vehicle with first flight in the 2020s.
The BE-3 follows the earliest rocket engine development efforts at Blue Origin in the 2000s. Blue's first engine was a "simple, single-propellant engine" called the Blue Engine-1 (BE-1) which used peroxide propellant and generated only 8.9 kN (2,000 lbf) of thrust, and their second, the Blue Engine-2 (BE-2) which was a bipropellant engine using kerosene and peroxide, producing 140 kN (31,000 lbf) thrust.
In January 2013, the company announced the development of the Blue Engine-3 BE-3, a new liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen (LH2/LOX) cryogenic engine. The engine was originally announced to produce 440 kN (100,000 lbf) thrust, with initial thrust chamber tests planned for mid-February 2013 at NASA Stennis. The thrust chamber tests were run sometime in 2013.
The BE-3 was successfully tested in late 2013 on a full-duration simulated suborbital burn, with coast phases and engine relights, "demonstrating deep throttle, full power, long-duration and reliable restart all in a single-test sequence." NASA has released a video of the test.
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Wikipedia