Ракеты Джеффа Безоса: New Glenn (НьюГленн) и New Armstrong

[Искандер]

Сергей пишет:

Alex_II пишет:

Сергей пишет:
И вопрос - под СПГ или метан Атлас то надо переделывать, сохранится ли диаметр?

А никто не собирается ставить на Атлас... Носитель будет называться Вулкан и иметь диаметр 5,4 метра...

Посмотрел на проекты Вулкана - чего собирается ловить ULA не понятно, с одной стороны F9 . c другой NG, пожалуй даже оба с одной стороны - сверху, и как бык овцу.

Это точно! ;-)

[Искандер]

Alex_II пишет:

Искандер пишет:
И что теперь будет с AR-1???

А что с ним сделается? Ну пойдет на полку... Мало ли их там, на полке у американцев... Там где-то до сих пор практически готовая НЕРВа пылится и двигло для NOVы - то что Aerojet M-1 называлось...

Это плохо, деньжат то уже попилено. Orbital мог бы на Антарес прикрутить, но они ударились в твердотопливную РН да и коммерческих перспектив у Антареса похоже нет.

[Alex_II]

Искандер пишет:
Orbital мог бы на Антарес прикрутить, но они ударились в твердотопливную РН

А куда им деваться от АТК?

[Salo]

 ǝdward ǝllǝgood‏ @FLSPACErePORT
A photo showing the recent status of Blue Origin's launch site construction at LC-36.
 

[Salo]

Seerndv пишет:
- варьируя смесь ищут оптимум от ВЧ. сажи и максимум тяги?

Откуда там сажа?

[Seerndv]

Х.З. вот и проверяют что в интересующем диапазоне смесей её нет.
ИМХО Старый утверждал что должна быть 

[Salo]

Откуда ей взяться, если там схема с ДОГГ? А соотношением компонентов регулируют тягу.

[Seerndv]

Salo пишет:
Откуда ей взяться, если там схема с ДОГГ? А соотношением компонентов регулируют тягу.

- ВЧ уже победили?
Я не видел ихний двигун после прожога, так что за сажу ничего сказать не могу ( я не гениальный химик чтобы посчитать все возможные реакции идущие туда-сюда и обратно)

[Сергей]

Salo пишет:

Seerndv пишет:
- варьируя смесь ищут оптимум от ВЧ. сажи и максимум тяги?

Откуда там сажа?

Вообще то разговор о саже вероятно пошел от машинного перевода - можно было подумать , что речь идет о соотношении компонентов.

[Seerndv]

Salo пишет:
Откуда ей взяться, если там схема с ДОГГ? А соотношением компонентов регулируют тягу.

- пожалуйста, вот пример коксофобии Старого только по отношению к  РД-0162:

Старый пишет:
Газификация углеводородного газа в тракте не даст нежелательных спецэффектов типа кокса?

- хотя читая вновь описание РД-0162 на сайте ( "Энергомаша"?) сам впал в задумчивость:

Двигатель РД-0162

КБХА по ТЗ от ГКНПЦ им. М.В. Хруничева разработало эскизный проект жидкостного кислородно-метанового двигателя РД0162, более дешевого и экономичного при многоразовой эксплуатации, чем керосиновый. Он предназначен для многократного использования в перспективной многоразовой ракетно-космической системе (МРКС).

Двигатель содержит низкотемпературный двухконтурный газотурбинный тракт с двумя турбинами (окислительный газогенераторный контур и восстановительный безгенераторный контур). Рабочий процесс в камере сгорания организован по типу «газ-газ».

Приоритетами данного двигателя являются повышенная надежность и безопасность использования, экологичность, а также низкая стоимость создания и эксплуатации, что является определяющим для двигателя проекта МРКС. В штатном варианте выбрано давление в камере сгорания 175 кгс/см2 и разработана новая принципиальная схема двигателя с дожиганием.

Двигатель РД0162 может рассматриваться применительно к использованию в составе перспективной МРКС и рассчитан на 50, 100 и большее количество полетов. Отсутствие продуктов сгорания по линии восстановительного газа турбины полностью исключает проблемы, связанные с образованием сажи.
http://engine.space/dejatelnost/develop/dvigatel-rd-01627669/

[Искандер]

Alex_II пишет:

Искандер пишет:
Orbital мог бы на Антарес прикрутить, но они ударились в твердотопливную РН

А куда им деваться от АТК?

Их твердотопливный монстр скорее не пройдет. У ULA будет  ОДНА метановая РН. Почему бы им не сделать керосиновый носитель  на AR-1 вместо Атласа? ТТУ у них есть, баки Южмаш сделает. Если вояки реально могут дать денег...

[Not]

Искандер пишет: У ULA будет ОДНА метановая РН.

Совершенно не факт. Метан - в мечтах. Скорее будет Атлас на РД-180.

Искандер  Почему бы им не сделать керосиновый носитель на AR-1 вместо Атласа?

Потому, что керосиновый носитель уже есть, в отличии от AR-1.

Искандер
баки Южмаш сделает.

Южмаш уже ничего не сделает.

Искандер Если вояки реально могут дать денег...

Где то я уже это слышал неоднократно -Дайте денег!

[Alex_II]

Not пишет:
Совершенно не факт. Метан - в мечтах. Скорее будет Атлас на РД-180.

Ну, теперь я за Вулкан спокоен - он непременно будет, раз ты сказал, что нет...

[Искандер]

Alex_II пишет:

Not пишет:
Совершенно не факт. Метан - в мечтах. Скорее будет Атлас на РД-180.

Ну, теперь я за Вулкан спокоен - он непременно будет, раз ты сказал, что нет...

))) Вот уж правда.

[Not]

Alex_II пишет:

Not пишет:
Совершенно не факт. Метан - в мечтах. Скорее будет Атлас на РД-180.

Ну, теперь я за Вулкан спокоен - он непременно будет

Много ли нужно филологу для спокойствия? - пара фраз

[Apollo13]

http://spacenews.com/blue-origin-switches-engines-for-new-glenn-second-stage/

Blue Origin switches engines for New Glenn second stage

by Caleb Henry — March 29, 2018

Blue Origin's BE-3 throttles during acceptance testing. Credit: Blue Origin



WASHINGTON — Blue Origin quietly changed the design of its New Glenn rocket around the beginning of the year in order to hold to a 2020 first launch and increase the range of orbital missions the rocket can complete.
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.
Blue Origin is developing two versions of New Glenn: a two-stage version designed to launch a wide range of satellites and a three-stage version for more demanding launches such as deep space missions.
Before making the change, Blue Origin intended to power the second stage of both versions with a single BE-4U engine. Now the company plans to forgo BE-4U development and rely instead on a pair of BE-3U engines to power the New Glenn second stage.


A group of BE-4 engines being assembled at Blue Origin's Kent, Washington, facility. Credit: Blue Origin

The design change, which Mowry said was made a few months ago, means Blue Origin only needs two types of engines for New Glenn instead of three.
Mowry said New Glenn will need a longer second stage to accommodate the dual engine configuration.
Blue Origin declined to give the expected lift capability of the revised New Glenn configurations. Mowry said the liquid hydrogen-fueled BE-3 has a higher specific impulse, making it more efficient than the BE-4, which runs on methane and liquid oxygen. The BE-3 can produce 110,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, compared to the BE-4's 550,000 pounds of thrust.
Blue Origin is already gaining early success in the commercial satellite launch sector, having secured eight missions with satellite operators around the world. But another motivation for tweaking New Glenn's design is to reach tricky orbits for national security customers.
Blue Origin is lining up New Glenn to compete with United Launch Alliance and SpaceX in launching U.S. military satellites by giving the rocket enough muscle to reach every orbit specified in the Launch Service Agreement (LSA) solicitation the U.S. Air Force issued last fall. The solicitation — which has also drawn interest from Orbital ATK and Aerojet Rocketdyne — specifies nine wide-ranging "reference orbits" the proposed launchers must be able to reach in order to qualify for Air Force funding.
The Air Force plans to help fund development of at least three launch system prototypes. Awards are expected in July.  
"If you look at LSA and all those mission profiles, we can serve all of those with a single version of New Glenn with this two-stage architecture," Mowry said.
Blue Origin's pursuit of defense business positions the company as a future competitor to ULA, who Blue Origin would also like to supply with BE-4 engines to for its next-generation Vulcan launch vehicle. ULA is still deciding between Blue Origin's BE-4 and Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 for Vulcan's first stage.


Blue Origin's website still indicated as of late March that New Glenn's second stage would be powered by a BE-4U engine. A company executive, however, said Blue switched to BE-3U around the first of the year. Credit: Blue Origin

Вторая ступень Нью Гленна теперь водородная с двумя BE-3U. Она будет длиннее предполагавшейся метановой.

[Сергей]

Apollo13 пишет:
Вторая ступень Нью Гленна теперь водородная с двумя BE-3U. Она будет длиннее предполагавшейся метановой.  

Похоже Безос опасается, что ВЕ-4 не выйдет в плановые сроки на проектные параметры, соответственно и ВЕ-4U. И подстраховывается, компенсируя недобор скорости на первой ступени, водородной второй ступенью. Нормальное решение, хочет выдержать сроки перед заказчиками, и иметь запас по времени для ЛИ NG. Работы по доведению ВЕ-4 до проектных параметров определенно будут продолжены, однако с РН Вулкан могут быть непонятки по срокам. ИМХО.

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/04/13/blue-origins-orbital-rocket-in-the-running-to-receive-u-s-military-investment/

Blue Origin's orbital rocket in the running to receive U.S. military investment
April 13, 2018 | Stephen Clark


Artist's concept of the two-stage version of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket. Credit: Blue Origin

Blue Origin submitted a proposal late last year in what's expected to be a four-way competition for U.S. Air Force funding to support development of new orbital-class rockets, a further step taken by the Jeff Bezos-owned company to break into the military launch market, industry officials said.

The proposal, confirmed by two space industry sources, puts Blue Origin up against SpaceX, Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance, which could use Blue Origin's BE-4 engine to power its next-generation Vulcan rocket.

Blue Origin received funding in an earlier phase of the Air Force's initiative to help companies develop new liquid-fueled U.S.-built booster engines in a bid to end the military's reliance on the Russian RD-180 powerplant, which drives the first stage of ULA's Atlas 5 rocket.

Спойлер

The Air Force's money supported development of the BE-4 engine, which was designed with private money, and is still primarily a privately-funded program. The Pentagon funding announced in early 2016 for the BE-4 program was directly awarded to ULA, which routed the money to Blue Origin's engine program.

SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Aerojet Rocketdyne also received Air Force funding in 2016 for propulsion work.

SpaceX used the Air Force money for its methane-fueled Raptor engine, which will power the company's next-generation super-heavy BFR launcher. Orbital ATK is developing its own launcher for national security missions, which would use solid-fueled rocket motors for the initial boost into space, then use a hydrogen-fueled upper stage for orbital injection. Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 engine is a backup option for ULA's new Vulcan rocket.

The Atlas 5 currently launches the bulk of the U.S. government's national security payloads. The basic, medium-lift versions of ULA's Delta 4 rocket are being retired next year, and the powerful Delta 4-Heavy configuration will remain in service until at least the early 2020s for military missions that require that rocket's capability.

The Air Force plans to award at least three of the companies a tranche of government funding this summer. Each launch provider will be required to supply their own multimillion-dollar investment fr om internal funds.

In late 2019, the Air Force is expected to sel ect two companies to proceed into the final phase of the public-private partnership, which will include procurement of launch services for military payloads.

The Air Force wants two certified launch providers that primarily use U.S.-built propulsion systems, giving the military assured access to space for its most critical communications, reconnaissance, navigation and early warning satellites. ULA's two rocket families and SpaceX's Falcon 9 launcher are currently certified for such missions.


Blue Origin's rocket factory near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

But the Delta 4 rocket is nearing retirement due to its high cost, and the Atlas 5 uses a Russian main engine. ULA says its Vulcan rocket, which could eventually fly with reusable main engines, will be less expensive and more capable than the Delta 4 and Atlas 5.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy could be certified for national security payloads as soon as 2019, once it completes additional missions and Air Force engineering reviews following its successful maiden test flight Feb. 6.

The Launch Services Agreements the Air Force is expected to award this summer will transition the military's investment from rocket propulsion to entire launchers, and the competition pits ULA against two of its prospective Vulcan suppliers: Blue Origin and Orbital ATK.

Bankrolled by Bezos's Amazon.com fortune, Blue Origin is developing the New Glenn rocket, a satellite launcher the company says could be ready for its first test flight by the end of 2020. There will be two versions of the New Glenn: a two-stage configuration for most satellite delivery missions, and a three-stage launcher for deep space missions.

Both configurations will employ the same reusable first stage booster, with seven BE-4 engines burning a mixture of liquified natural gas and liquid oxygen. The first stage will produce 3.85 million pounds of thrust will all seven engines at full throttle, then detach a few minutes after liftoff to return to Earth, landing on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean for reuse.

The BE-4 engine began hotfire testing at Blue Origin's test site in West Texas in October.

The New Glenn's second stage was originally designed with a single restartable vacuum-rated version of the BE-4 engine called the BE-4U. But Space News reported last month that Blue Origin has changed the design, and the New Glenn's second stage will instead use two BE-3U engines, a modified version of the hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine that flies on the company's suborbital New Shepard booster.

The change simplifies the New Glenn design, meaning Blue Origin will only have to develop two types of engines for the rocket, not three.

The BE-3 engine produces 110,000 pounds of thrust, less than the 550,000 pounds of thrust generated by a BE-4 engine. But the BE-3 has a higher specific impulse, a measure of fuel efficiency, according to Space News.

The two-stage version of the New Glenn will meet all of the Air Force's launch requirements, capable of lifting the prescribed payload mass to a range of orbits specified by the military's procurement documents, Space News reported.

A BE-3U engine will also power the third stage of the New Glenn's deep space configuration.


Artist's concept of the New Glenn's flight profile. Credit: Blue Origin

Blue Origin also updated the New Glenn's design last year, opting to place a 7-meter (23-foot) diameter payload shroud on top of the rocket beginning with the rocket's inaugural launch. Officials originally planned a 5-meter (16-foot) fairing for the New Glenn's initial missions.

Officials said the wide payload envelope will allow the New Glenn to launch larger numbers of satellites in one go for commercial mega-constellations. Scientists see potential for the New Glenn to haul up telescopes with bigger mirrors.

Still nearly three years from its first flight, the New Glenn rocket, named for former astronaut John Glenn, has secured launch contracts from several commercial satellite companies, including OneWeb, Eutelsat and SKY Perfect JSAT Corp.

The New Glenn rocket will be manufactured and assembled in Blue Origin's new factory just outside the gates of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, wh ere the launcher's propellant tanks, structures and payload fairing will be produced. Blue Origin plans to base its engine manufacturing facility, currently at the company's Kent, Washington, headquarters, in Huntsville, Alabama.

Blue Origin is building its New Glenn launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The New Glenn will blast off from Launch Complex 36, the former home of the Atlas-Centaur rocket.

The company has no current plans for a West Coast launch site for polar orbit missions.

Payloads heading into polar orbit, such as OneWeb's communications satellites, could be launched fr om Cape Canaveral, then steered into polar orbit while avoiding taking a flight path over land.

[свернуть]

[Apollo13]

http://spacenews.com/blue-origin-expects-be-4-qualification-tests-to-be-done-by-years-end/

Blue Origin expects BE-4 qualification tests to be done by year's end

by Jeff Foust — April 19, 2018




A still from a video released by Blue Origin March 13 showing a recent 114-second BE-4 engine test. Credit: Blue Origin



COLORADO SPRINGS — The chief executive of Blue Origin says he expects the company's BE-4 engine to complete qualification testing by the end of the year as the company ramps up work on its New Glenn orbital rocket.
In an April 19 interview during the 34th Space Symposium here, Bob Smith said testing of the BE-4 engine, which uses methane and liquid oxygen propellants, was going well as the company stepped through a methodical process of increased durations and thrust levels.
"We continue to progress along the lines of changing the power levels and going from various throttle settings," he said. That includes, he said, a test the company announced in March when the engine fired for 114 seconds at 65 percent of rated power. That duration is about half a typical mission duty cycle for the engine.
"We continue to roll through our test program and hope to qualify that engine by the end of the year," he said. "We're walking our way through that just to make sure we understand and characterize the engine fully."
Smith said the success the BE-4 program has enjoyed so far is based on a long, incremental development process. "I think people don't have a full understanding of how long this development has been going on. It's been going on for seven years," he said, progressing from injector testing to preburner and powerpack testing prior to full-scale hotfire tests. "It means we have a huge amount of component information to actually go rely on."
Blue Origin is developing BE-4 for its New Glenn launch vehicle, which will use seven such engines in its first stage. The company has completed all the architectural trades in the design of the large rocket, he said, and is now is making some of the first parts for the vehicle.
"We have the performance characteristics that cover all the missions — civil, commercial, national security — that we'd like," he said.
One of the recent changes in New Glenn's design is to use a version of its BE-3 engine, which runs on liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, over an upper-stage version of the BE-4 on the second stage. "It's a nice change for us, because it reduces a good amount of risk," he said.
The shift in engines reduces development risk, he said, since the company doesn't have to develop an additional version of the BE-4. It also provides a performance boost, as the BE-3's propellant combination has a higher specific impulse, or Isp, over liquid oxygen and methane.
"Having a highly energetic upper stage really works," he said. "You want on the first stage thrust and on the second stage Isp, and having a hydrogen upper stage obviously gives you that higher Isp."
He declined to comment on whether Blue Origin is competing for a Launch Services Agreement award from the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force is expected to award up to three such agreements this summer to fund development of new launch vehicles, with Orbital ATK, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance among those competing.
Smith did state that national security was a market Blue Origin would pursue for New Glenn, a shift from a couple years ago when company founder Jeff Bezos said it would leave such missions to other companies. "We're making sure it's available for as many payloads as we can possibly go fly," he said of the vehicle.
ULA is also considering the BE-4 for the first stage of its next-generation Vulcan vehicle, along with Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1. Smith said ULA has employees embedded at Blue Origin to monitor BE-4 development. "I think they're happy with the progress that we're making in terms of the technical performance and general characterization of the engine," he said.
The companies are working on the details of a production contract to supply BE-4 engines to ULA. Asked when that contact might be finalized, he offered the same one-word response that Tory Bruno, president and chief executive of ULA, gives when asked when his company will make a decision on Vulcan's engine: "Soon."



A Blue Origin BE-4 engine on display at the 34th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust

New Shepard testing
In parallel with development of New Glenn and the BE-4 engine is the company's New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle. The company flew a new version of the New Shepard vehicle in December, the most recent test flight of the vehicle.
The next New Shepard test flight should take place soon. "Hopefully in the next few weeks," Smith said.
Blue Origin has been making updates to the vehicle, he said, intended primarily to improve operability rather than performance or reliability. Those upgrades took longer than expected, he said, hence the four-month gap since the last test flight.
Once the test flights resume, Smith said the company planned several flights to verify the vehicle's performance before putting people on board. "What we want to do is get a series of flights, test out the incorporation of some of the changes that we've made, and then make sure we've got a stable configuration that we can repeat several times before we get to first human flight," he said. That first crewed flight, he said, is expected by the end of the year.
Blue Origin has flown research payloads on several of its New Shepard test flights and plans to do so on upcoming flights as well. "We've had an incredibly good response," he said. "We've been able to sell out a lot of our capacity for our upcoming flights."
However, Blue Origin has yet to start selling tickets for suborbital space tourism flights on New Shepard, and Smith said there's no schedule for doing so. "We continue to be head down on making sure the configuration is good and stable and ready to fly," he said. "Once we all feel confident that that's the case, then we'll have the conversation internally about what prices are and what that whole process looks like."

[Apollo13]

Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust May 22

Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin: key for us in the next few months is continued BE-4 engine testing. Up to 70% thrust, 114-sec duration. #SpaceTechExpo