firey Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 24 minutes ago, DocM said: Big noise, Seems a bit overkill for a hotdog roaster no? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598217282 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetaguyGZT Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Good stuff with their testing, but I will never ever call Methane LNG. EVER. I refuse to do it out of principle and because my education won't allow me to. "Natural Gas." "Which 'natural gas' are you referring to? There are SO many. ALL things could be a gas, and in one form or another all of them are 'natural'. Be specific?" will be the FIRST response I give someone who comes at me with that. SALSN 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598217290 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Man, they need to crank that sucker up to 100% alright! Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598217540 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 (edited) They clearly hit a wall with the BE-4 Vac for the second stage and are switchibg to BE-3U. Now New Glenn is no earlier than Q4-2020, not 2019. A slip into 2021 is likely, and one has to wonder if this will impact Vulcan-Centaur V. Edit: with an LH2 upper stage, New Glenn will exceed Vulcan-Centaur V. All blur needs to do now is make a long-cruise version of NG's upper stage and Vulcan-ACES takes a dagger to the neck as well. http://spacenews.com/blue-origin-switches-engines-for-new-glenn-second-stage/ Quote Blue Origin switches engines for New Glenn second stage Although the company’s website still shows New Glenn with a second stage powered by a reignitable version of the BE-4 it is developing to power the main stage of both New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, that configuration is now out of date. A Blue Origin executive told SpaceNews the company is shelving development of a vacuum-optimized version of BE-4 and will instead use vacuum-optimized versions of flight-proven BE-3 engines for New Glenn’s second stage and optional third stage. “We’ve already flown BE-3s, and we were already in the development program for BE-3U as the third stage for New Glenn,” said Clay Mowry, Blue Origin’s vice president of sales, marketing and customer experience. “It made a lot of sense for us to switch to an architecture where we get there faster for first flight.” The BE-3U is the upper stage variant of the liquid hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine that has powered Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard spacecraft on seven suborbital test flights since its 2015 debut.Mowry said switching to the BE-3U for New Glenn’s second stage will allow Blue Origin to conduct the rocket’s first launch in the fourth quarter of 2020. He declined to say how much time the engine change saves compared to the original configuration. > > Edited March 29, 2018 by DocM Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598230070 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetaguyGZT Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 Wow. This one is catching me by surprise. That's gonna keep additional production lines open at Blue, sure, but good grief this was not what they'd planned on. Are the technical problems really that insurmountable with the BE-4VAC that they couldn't be solved? I'm calling BS here -- SpaceX got their [snip] together with relighting CH4/LOX in a near-vacuum (because space isn't a complete vacuum), and they didn't have any problems to speak of. C'mon, Blue. You people are smarter and way more talented than having to revert to LH2 burners. That's 1960's technology. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598230092 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 OTOH: with an LH2 upper stage, New Glenn will exceed Vulcan-Centaur V. All Blue needs to do now is make a long-cruise version of NG's BE-3U upper stage and Vulcan-ACES takes a dagger to the neck as well. Tory Bruno can't be very happy. And Ariane 6 isn't any better off. BetaguyGZT 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598230094 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetaguyGZT Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 Depends, too, on the roles that New Glenn was intended to fill versus what roles it can fill with the updated setup. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598230100 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 BetaguyGZT 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598237176 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 NOTAM for a low altitude test BetaguyGZT 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598248882 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted April 28, 2018 Author Share Posted April 28, 2018 BetaguyGZT and Emn1ty 2 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598253034 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598253690 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 They're talking about New Glenn passenger flights too Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598253698 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 (edited) Woo-HOO!! 347,000 ft, 2200 mph Edited April 29, 2018 by DocM Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598253706 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 Or... 105.76km altitude and 3540.56 km/h max speed. Why won't these guys just at least display this sort of stuff in both styles in broadcasts. Ugh. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598253732 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 Playback Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598253740 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 BE-4 has been stuck at 65-70% and 114s for some time, and later in the same thread this was a tad uncomfortable, BetaguyGZT 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598271742 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetaguyGZT Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 Yeah. Wonder wth is going on with the BE-4's development to keep them at that milestone. DocM 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598271746 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beittil Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 I guess it is also a safe bet to state that this is the reason by ULA keeps saying 'soon' when asked about a decision on engine selection for the Vulcan. They will not make a call until they have seen BE-4 do a 100% power or more burn at full duration (or longer). Until then... no bueno! BetaguyGZT and DocM 2 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598271770 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 It's interesting that Raptor's chamber pressure path was to start out at 80%; development 200 bar vs operational 250 bar, then later scale Merlin-like to 300 bar. BetaguyGZT 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598271814 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetaguyGZT Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 My educational-ish guess (because that's not my field of Engineering) is there's some telemetry they're seeing that's at redline that they have to work through still. Until then they'll be stuck at that level of output. Likely the problem part they had trouble with before. If they are still dealing with that, and haven't made any progress on it in the year and a half since? Consider the BE-4 EOL'd in that scenario. That'd be a showstopper. There are several showstopper scenarios that'll kill an engine programme dead during R&D, and a component failure that limits power which cannot be worked around is the main killer of good engine ideas. Kinda like the EM Drive, I'm just seeing that it has been killed off. Oooh, this'd destroy Blue Origin if something like that were to happen ... DocM 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598272194 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 Hopefully we'll see them hit at least 75%-80% soon. BetaguyGZT 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598272448 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetaguyGZT Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 I hope so too. Competition is good for everyone. It gets me thinking, though, that Aerojet's tweet might be a thinly-veiled "hey fellas, you aren't gonna get that issue sorted" kind of thing. Maybe poking them with a stick somewhat. DocM 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598272452 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted May 27, 2018 Author Share Posted May 27, 2018 (edited) Edited May 27, 2018 by DocM BetaguyGZT 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598273910 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetaguyGZT Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Awesome. Possible takeaways can include: a.) In it for the long haul, b.) sees what is in the best interests of all the players involved, but isn't doing the "groupthink" either (is for the Lunar Village but not necessarily the Cislunar Station), c.) is also thinking "don't change what is clearly working (ala SpaceX and reuse)" but also putting their own spin on "what works" to differentiate themselves and advance the overall "what works" because "competition is what drives innovation" (and I also believe this) d.) is taking the smart approach IMO overall and won't regret doing so. Yep. They'll be fine. Out of everyone that OldSpace should be listening to, it's Mr. Bezos that has the best chance of actually making them listen. Maybe they will once Blue's hardware is flying circles around their yet-to-be-launched platforms (SLS/Orion, I'm looking at you) ... Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598273944 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skiver Veteran Posted June 21, 2018 Veteran Share Posted June 21, 2018 Stumbled upon this Abort Test video on YouTube, I think it's pretty impressive to see when the first stage is also in flight. BetaguyGZT and DocM 2 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1253014-blue-origin-aerospace-updates/page/9/#findComment-598291828 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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