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Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

arstechnica.com

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Re: Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

#11

Post by Retric »

Nokinside wrote: post #10
shasheene wrote: post #3

Anyone know the price to low-earth orbit using New Glenn? (perhaps can be inferred from Eutelsat or OneWeb's financial disclosures to regulators?) With Jeff Bezos selling $1 billion worth of Amazon shares a year to fund Blue Origin, will he choose to sell below cost for significant periods of time to stay competitive with the Falcon 9 and Heavy?

It would be interesting to see how the market share affects the profits and how these two companies plan to compete in long term. If Blue Origin and SpaceX compete in the same segment and divide the market, development and manufacturing costs per launch will increase for both. Assuming each will price the launch price so low that they get roughly 50 percent of the market they would get without the other, both lose ha…

Several buyers are uninstered in a launch monopoly developing which is likely to prevent such a strategy from working. A more likely scenario is for a major player to gain a process advantage and leverage that into higher profits for decades like Intel vs AMD etc.

Re: Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

#14

Post by nickik »

mabbo wrote: post #9
neverminder wrote: post #2

I'm curious which one will launch first, BFR or New Glenn. My money is on the BFR, so far with 1200 s Raptor engine fire and full size cryo tank they seem to be making progress. It's good to have Blue Origin breathing down SpaceX's neck though, hopefully it will provide them with sustained motivation.

Just imagine what things would look like if SpaceX has a serious failure again. It could drop them back six months, and Blue Origin would get that much closer. Must be a really good motivator for SpaceX.

Why would a Falcon 9 failure set the BFR back six months? The teams working the BFR parts are probably not strongly involved and could just continue working.

It would set them back somewhat, but I don't see why it would be that long.

Re: Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

#16

Post by joejerryronnie »

netsharc wrote: post #8

Off-Topic: But it's not exactly brain surgery, is it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I

HN is for very serious discussion, there is no room for humor or irreverence here. And to those seeking enlightening discourse on highly complex technical topics, I say to you . . . it's not exactly brain surgery, is it?

Re: Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

#17

Post by nickik »

neverminder wrote: post #2

I'm curious which one will launch first, BFR or New Glenn. My money is on the BFR, so far with 1200 s Raptor engine fire and full size cryo tank they seem to be making progress. It's good to have Blue Origin breathing down SpaceX's neck though, hopefully it will provide them with sustained motivation.

The Raptor has fired more but it is also not finalised in terms of design. The BE-4 is full sized and they don't seem to intend any more changes in the design.

Really the New Glenn competes more with Falcon Heavy then BFR. They are designing a New Armstrong rocket that will be more in the BFR class.

It will be very interesting, in 2020 we have planned New Glenn, Ariane 6, Vulcan and BFR. Falcon Heavy of course will have been flying for a while by then.

Re: Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

#18

Post by nickik »

vermontdevil wrote: post #15

Biggest thing to me is the use of fuel here. Liquified natural gas has a lot of benefits. Simpler pressurization system, less soot etc The future is exciting.

One of the price advantages that Blue has over SpaceX is that they will fly with LNG rather then pure methane.

Edit: Will New Glenn also not use a third gas for pressurisation? Like BFR?

Re: Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

#19

Post by vermontdevil »

nickik wrote: post #18
vermontdevil wrote: post #15

Biggest thing to me is the use of fuel here. Liquified natural gas has a lot of benefits. Simpler pressurization system, less soot etc The future is exciting.

One of the price advantages that Blue has over SpaceX is that they will fly with LNG rather then pure methane. Edit: Will New Glenn also not use a third gas for pressurisation? Like BFR?

That’s my understanding. They are to use LNG as it’s own pressurization. Reduces a lot of complexity. Details are still vague as far as I can read.

Re: Blue Origin has hot fired its BE-4 rocket engine for the first time

#20

Post by ape4 »

vermontdevil wrote: post #15

Biggest thing to me is the use of fuel here. Liquified natural gas has a lot of benefits. Simpler pressurization system, less soot etc The future is exciting.

If this new rocket turned out better, I suppose SpaceX could license the tech.
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