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ЦитироватьDec 3, 2013                                        
Blue Origin Debuts the American-made BE-3 Liquid Hydrogen Rocket Engine
                                                                  
    KENT, Wash. – Blue Origin reached a key milestone in the development of the liquid-fueled BE-3 engine by successfully demonstrating deep throttle, full power, long-duration and reliable restart all in a single-test sequence.  The BE-3 is the first completely new liquid hydrogen-fueled engine to be developed for production in the U.S. since the RS-68 more than a decade ago.
    The test demonstrated a full mission duty cycle, mimicking flight of the New Shepard vehicle by thrusting at 110,000 pounds in a 145-second boost phase, shutting down for approximately four and a half minutes to simulate coast through apogee, then restarting and throttling down to 25,000 pounds thrust to simulate controlled vertical landing.  To date, the BE-3 has demonstrated more than 160 starts and 9,100 seconds of operation at Blue Origin's test facility near Van Horn, Texas. 
    Designed and developed in-house by Blue Origin at the company's research and development center outside Seattle, the BE-3 features a "tap-off" design, in which the main chamber combustion gases are used to power the engine's turbopumps.  Tap-off is particularly well-suited to human spaceflight because of its single combustion chamber and graceful shutdown mode.
    "The BE-3 will gain extensive flight heritage on our New Shepard suborbital system prior to entering service on vehicles carrying humans to low-Earth orbit," said Rob Meyerson, president and program manager of Blue Origin.  "Given its high-performance, low cost, and reusability the BE-3 is well suited for boost, upper-stage and in-space applications on both government and commercial launch systems."
    Blue Origin previously conducted testing of the BE-3 thrust chamber in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, as part of a long-term vision to provide safe, affordable crew transport to low-Earth orbit.

    About Blue Origin

    Blue Origin, LLC (Blue Origin) is a private company developing vehicles and technologies to enable commercial human space transportation. Blue Origin has a long-term vision of greatly increasing the number of people that fly into space so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. For more information and a list of job openings, please visit us at www.blueorigin.com (http://www.blueorigin.com/).                                                                        
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/240077.jpg)                     
Blue Origin's BE-3 rocket engine ramps up to full power operations of 110,000 lbf thrust. Photo credit: Blue Origin

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/90804.jpg) (http://d1bcdj9gov2fot.cloudfront.net/press-releases/2013-12-03/jsc2013e097067_nr_30_4674_3116.jpg)                         
At Blue Origin's West Texas facility, the BE-3 engine demonstrated a full simulated suborbital mission profile, igniting, throttling, and restarting on command. Photo credit: NASA
                      
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/90805.jpg)  (http://d1bcdj9gov2fot.cloudfront.net/press-releases/2013-12-03/jsc2013e097056_nr_30_4810_2706.jpg)
The sun sets over a test stand at Blue Origin's West Texas facility. Photo credit: NASA

http://youtu.be/3r6r0eglKPo (http://youtu.be/3r6r0eglKPo)

ЦитироватьBlue Origin Rocket Engine Test-fired for Simulated Suborbital Run
By Irene Klotz | Dec. 4, 2013  
(http://www.spacenews.com/sites/spacenews.com/files/styles/large/public/images/articles/BE3EngineDistant_BO4X3.jpg) (http://www.spacenews.com/sites/spacenews.com/files/images/articles/BE3EngineDistant_BO4X3.jpg)
The test simulated what an engine powering New Shepard would be required to do in flight. Credit: Blue Origin photo

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin, a startup commercial spaceflight company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, completed a full-duration burn of a liquid hydrogen-fueled engine developed for the New Shepard suborbital spaceship and planned orbital vehicles, president and program manager Rob Meyerson said Dec. 3.
The test, which took place at Blue Origin's facility near Van Horn, Texas, simulated what an engine powering New Shepard would be required to do in flight, namely thrust at 110,000 pounds for 145 seconds to boost the ship, shut down for 4.5 minutes to allow the vehicle to coast beyond the atmosphere, restart and throttle down to 25,000 pounds of thrust to make a controlled, vertical landing.
The full-duration simulation, which occurred Nov. 20, capped an 11-month series of tests during which the engine was powered up 160 times and operated for a cumulative total of more than 2.5 hours. 
"This is a very significant milestone for us," Meyerson told reporters on a Dec. 3 conference call. "It gets us over a major hurdle, a major risk area for the development. It clears the way for moving forward into final checkout of the vehicle and readying it for flight test."
He declined to discuss a time frame for New Shepard's test flight program. The company intends to begin orbital test flights in 2018.
"We demonstrated the ability of the integrated engine to go throughout the throttle range without any dwell periods, restart, shut down, coast — the whole mission profile. I think that's really the key thing," Meyerson said.
The company also plans to modify the engine, known as Blue Engine-3, or BE-3, and use it as an expendable, upper-stage motor for orbital launches. 
"We believe that BE-3 is well-suited for a variety of boost upper-stage and in-space applications on both government and commercial launch system applications," Meyerson said.
The biggest change between the BE-3 and the upper-stage variant, known as BE-3U, is switching to a nozzle that allows for a higher expansion ratio.
"We'll be looking at other things we want to do to either improve performance or lower cost," Meyerson said, adding that initially the upper-stage motor would not be recovered. 
A reusable upper stage is considered "an incremental upgrade down the road," Meyerson said.
For the orbital vehicle's first stage, which is expected to be reusable, Blue Origin may cluster several BE-3 engines together. Meyerson would not say how many.
"What we like about the BE-3 and why we selected the BE-3 as our first orbital launch vehicle engine was that it gives us the option to go with an all-hydrogen architecture if we chose to. 
"We have ideas, we have some things in development for some other engines, but we're not ready to discuss those today," Meyerson said.
The company would like to base its orbital launch operation at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and has a proposal pending to take over the mothballed shuttle launch pad 39A.  Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies Corp. also is vying for the pad.  
NASA's decision is on hold pending a review of the solicitation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in response to a protest by Blue Origin. 
"We believe we've submitted a proposal that provides the fullest commercial use of the facility," Meyerson said. 
"If the outcome is that our proposal is not selected, we have many other options. We are looking at those options and we would continue to look at them," he said. 
The GAO is expected to issue a ruling by Dec. 12.

ЦитироватьBlue Origin Demos New Shepard Full Mission Engine Cycle
By Guy Norris guy.norris@aviationweek.com
Source: AWIN First

December 03, 2013
Credit: NASA JSC

Blue Origin, the secretive commercial space company established by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is readying for qualification tests of its liquid hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine for a suborbital flight following completion of a key ground demonstration that simulated a full mission of its New Shepard vehicle from launch to vertical landing.

Unveiling new details about the design and testing of the liquid hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine at the core of its plans to develop low cost, reliable suborbital and orbital human launch systems, Blue Origin says the company remains on track to perform its first orbital flight in 2018. The BE-3 will provide power for both the suborbital and orbital versions, with the former mission providing an experience-building exercise to the latter flights. Blue Origin also reveals it is developing an upper-stage version of the engine for the orbital vehicle dubbed the BE-3U.

The full mission cycle test, which was conducted at the company's test facility near Van Horn, Texas, began with a run at 110,000 lb. thrust for 145 sec. to simulate the boost phase, followed by a four-and-a-half minute shut down to simulate the coast through apogee. The engine was then restarted and throttled down to 25,000 lb. thrust to simulate a controlled vertical landing.

"This is a very significant milestone for us because it gets us over a major hurdle and a major risk, and it gets us ready for the checkout of the vehicle and for flight test," says Blue Origin program manager and president Rob Meyerson.

Test work building up to the full-cycle BE-3 test in November was conducted over nine months and included 160 starts and 9,100 sec. of engine operation. "That equates to a test every two days and sometimes was actually three or four tests per day," Meyerson says. The work forms part of an unfunded extension of Blue Origin's Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) contract with NASA, and builds on tests of the BE-3 thrust chamber conducted under an earlier funded phase of CCDev2 at the space agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi in 2012. Those tests "allowed us to accelerate the program by about one year," Meyerson adds.

The next major milestones include a review later this month of the subscale propulsion tank assembly, and a full space vehicle subsystem interim design review in March 2014. Blue Origin is scheduled to give NASA its final CCDev2 briefing in May 2014.

The BE-3 design is based on the combustion "tap-off" engine cycle, sometimes also known as the 'topping cycle' or chamber bleed cycle, in which the combustion gases from around the walls of the main chamber are bled off, partially cooled and used to power the engine's turbopumps. Blue Origin says the cycle, which produces a relatively high specific impulse (Isp), is simpler for options such as pre-burning staged-combustion, and well suited to human spaceflight because of its single combustion chamber and "graceful" shutdown mode.

Despite the challenges of the cycle, including potentially complex startup systems and high temperature turbine drive gases, Meyerson says "it is different because it only uses the one combustor, so it has got a tendency to shut down rather than feed the combustion process." Although the heritage Rocketdyne company developed the experimental J-2S "tap off" variant of the upper-stage J-2 Saturn V, Meyerson says the BE-3 is the first engine of its type developed to fly.

The company also is focusing on modifications to adapt the baseline engine to the upper-stage BE-3U variant. "We demonstrated very high efficiencies on the core injector and that allows us to put on different nozzles including a short design for deep throttling for landing, and a large expansion ratio nozzle design for the upper stage, which will give the higher performance and efficiency you need for that," Meyerson says. "But we are also looking at other things we can do for that in terms of expendables and lower cost manufacturing."

ЦитироватьThe BE-3 design is based on the combustion "tap-off" engine cycle, sometimes also known as the 'topping cycle' or chamber bleed cycle, in which the combustion gases from around the walls of the main chamber are bled off, partially cooled and used to power the engine's turbopumps. Blue Origin says the cycle, which produces a relatively high specific impulse (Isp), is simpler for options such as pre-burning staged-combustion, and well suited to human spaceflight because of its single combustion chamber and "graceful" shutdown mode.

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
Скорее всего отбор водорода из рубашки охлаждения со сбросом мятого газа через выхлопной патрубок ТНА. То бишь открытая испарительная схема.

ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
Похоже всётаки что отбор продуктов сгорания непосредственно из камеры сгорания, из пристеночного слоя. С последующим разбавлением "холодным" водородом.

ЦитироватьАлександр Хороших пишет:

ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
Похоже всётаки что отбор продуктов сгорания непосредственно из камеры сгорания, из пристеночного слоя. С последующим разбавлением "холодным" водородом.

Сало выше написал - тапоф-цикл (выделено зелёным). И в приведённой ссылке написано именно об отборе из пристеночного слоя с последующим охлаждением.

Цитироватьoby1 пишет:
50т.На вторую ступень Тарантаса подошёл бы?

ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
Так с какой стороны стенки пристеночный слой? Если из рубашки охлаждения то зачем ещё охлаждать?

ЦитироватьПетр Зайцев пишет:
Может так легче организовать зажигание? Сначла вся камера работает в режиме паяльной лампы, надежный пуск. Потом ТНА раскручивается, переходим на режим РД.

ЦитироватьАлександр Хороших пишет:

ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
Так с какой стороны стенки пристеночный слой? Если из рубашки охлаждения то зачем ещё охлаждать?

Тапоф-цикл предполагает отбор газов пристеночного слоя из КС . Вы это и без меня знаете.

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
Скорее всего отбор водорода из рубашки охлаждения со сбросом мятого газа через выхлопной патрубок ТНА. То бишь открытая испарительная схема.

ЦитироватьBlue Origin is one of four NASA partners working with the agency's Commercial Crew Program to develop new capabilities to transport people to low-Earth orbit. Ultimately, NASA intends to certify and use commercial systems to fly astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station and back. Click here for a printable version of this poster. (http://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/wp-content/uploads/sites/230/2014/04/CCP_Blue_Origin_508.pdf)

ЦитироватьOne milestone covers an in-flight test of a "pusher" escape system, where rocket engines at the base of the vehicle would push the spacecraft away from its launch vehicle in the event of an abort. Under the CCDev2 milestone, NASA personnel would review data and video from the test, which would use an unspecified subscale booster.

A second milestone involves a flight test of Blue Origin's BE-3 rocket engine, a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine that the company has tested on the ground in earlier milestones. That flight would test the engine on a "representative suborbital mission," which NASA personnel would be invited to observe.

The third milestone involves a flight test of a subscale propellant tank, also on a representative suborbital mission. The assembly review for that tank was a milestone in a prior unfunded extension of Blue Origin's CCDev2 agreement.

The extension states that the BE-3 and propellant tank milestones would be achieved by September 2015, while the pusher escape system test milestone is scheduled for March 2016. The overall agreement now expires April 17, 2016.

ЦитироватьBlue Origin has completed testing of one engine it is developing for its own suborbital vehicle as it continues work on a second, much larger engine for United Launch Alliance's new orbital launch vehicle, the company announced April 7.

The company said it had recently completed acceptance testing of the BE-3 engine after several years of work, allowing the company to move forward with test flights of its New Shepard vehicle later this year from its test site in West Texas. Those flight tests will ultimately lead to commercial suborbital flights later this decade.

"The acceptance testing came at the tail end of a very, very long development program," Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson said in an April 7 teleconference with reporters. That included 450 tests of the engine, with a cumulative running time of more than 500 minutes.

BE-3 uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, which the company said makes it the first engine with that propellant combination developed in the United States in more than a decade. The engine can generate up to 110,000 pounds of thrust, but can be throttled down to 20,000 pounds. Such "deep throttling" is useful for vehicles that, like New Shepard, plan to take off and land vertically.

ЦитироватьHe added that while Blue Origin developed the BE-3 for its own vehicle, it is making the engine available commercially as well. The company is working on a version of the engine, designated BE-3U, for use in upper stages, including a future orbital launch vehicle in the company's long-term plans.

Цитироватьоктоген пишет:
Интересен его вакуумный уи. Думаю что в районе 420-430 с.

ЦитироватьАнтон пишет:
В связи с возможностью использования на ACES BE-3U вместо RL-10 хочу спросить, у BE-3U что тоже тяга в 50 тонн будет?

ЦитироватьОлег  Шляпин написал:
 Аппарат состоит из ракетного модуля и капсулы, где смогут разместиться три астронавта.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка написал:
На второй ступени New Glenn BE-3U будет