Blue Origin says it is building a higher-performing rocket engine at 1/4 the cost

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—Blue Origin announced two significant upgrades to its New Glenn rocket on Thursday, reducing the cost of manufacturing the vehicle and expanding its capacity for payload delivery to geostationary orbit and the Moon. With these upgrades, the company aims to eventually position New Glenn to launch more than 1,000 times a year.

佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心——蓝色起源公司周四宣布对其“新格伦”（New Glenn）火箭进行两项重大升级，旨在降低制造火箭的成本，并扩大其向地球静止轨道和月球运送有效载荷的能力。通过这些升级，该公司计划最终使“新格伦”火箭每年能够发射超过1000次。

“There has never been higher demand for launch, ever,” Dave Limp, chief executive officer of Blue Origin, said during the UP.Summit conference at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. Blue Origin has already begun test firing a new engine, called Northstar, that will eventually replace the BE-4 engine that powers the first stage of New Glenn. Separately, the company also said it was developing a hydrogen-oxygen third stage for the rocket, GS3, to give it an extra kick.

蓝色起源首席执行官戴夫·林普（Dave Limp）在佛罗里达州航天飞机着陆设施举行的UP.Summit会议上表示：“发射需求从未像现在这样高。”蓝色起源已经开始对一款名为“北极星”（Northstar）的新型发动机进行试车，该发动机最终将取代目前为“新格伦”一级火箭提供动力的BE-4发动机。此外，该公司还表示正在为该火箭开发一种氢氧第三级——GS3，以提供额外的推力。

The Northstar engine is a simplified but more powerful version of the BE-4 engine, Limp said. It has half the number of parts, 30 percent less mass, and about 65 percent can be 3D-printed. Blue Origin believes it can manufacture the engine at 25 percent of the cost of a BE-4 engine, and eventually reach the point where each engine can be assembled in less than a day.

林普表示，“北极星”发动机是BE-4发动机的简化版，但性能更强。它的零件数量减少了一半，质量减轻了30%，且约65%的部件可以通过3D打印制造。蓝色起源认为，该发动机的制造成本仅为BE-4的25%，并最终有望实现单台发动机在一天内组装完成。

The company is deep into development and testing of Northstar, having already begun a test-firing campaign. “To get access to space at a lower cost, we have to look at every part of the vehicle,” Limp said. “This is going to be a game-changer.” The BE-4 engine powering New Glenn today has a thrust of 640,000 pounds, and Limp said Northstar will have a starting thrust of 715,000 pounds.

该公司目前正深入开展“北极星”的研发与测试工作，并已启动试车计划。林普说：“为了以更低的成本进入太空，我们必须审视火箭的每一个部件。这将改变游戏规则。”目前为“新格伦”提供动力的BE-4发动机推力为64万磅，而林普表示，“北极星”的初始推力将达到71.5万磅。

Blue Origin is developing a third stage for New Glenn called GS3 (creatively named Glenn Stage 3) to offer direct injection to geostationary orbit and Earth-escape trajectories. The third stage fits within an interstage, preserving the full fairing volume for customer payloads. The stage can fly on both the smaller 7×2 variant and the larger 9×4 variant.

蓝色起源正在为“新格伦”开发第三级，命名为GS3（即“格伦第三级”的创意缩写），旨在提供直接进入地球静止轨道和地球逃逸轨道的发射能力。该第三级安装在级间段内，从而为客户的有效载荷保留了完整的整流罩空间。该级火箭既可用于较小的7×2型“新格伦”火箭，也可用于较大的9×4型。

According to Blue Origin, a GS3-equipped New Glenn 7×2 can carry 8 metric tons directly to geostationary orbit and 10 metric tons to translunar injection. Those figures increase to 14 tons and 20 tons, respectively, for the larger 9×4 variant. As the rocket’s third stage, it needs to be light, Limp said. For this reason, the third stage is made mostly of composites, which are high-performing and lightweight.

据蓝色起源称，配备GS3的7×2型“新格伦”火箭可直接将8吨有效载荷送入地球静止轨道，或将10吨载荷送入地月转移轨道。对于较大的9×4型火箭，这些数字分别增加到14吨和20吨。林普表示，作为火箭的第三级，它必须足够轻。因此，第三级主要由高性能且轻质的复合材料制成。

The stage will be powered by the company’s BE-7 engine, already used by its lunar landers. This engine is optimized for in-space operations and uses liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants. But hydrogen is the smallest atom and therefore leaky. With composites, thermal cycling and mechanical strain can cause cracking, exacerbating losses of molecular hydrogen.

该级火箭将由公司的BE-7发动机提供动力，该发动机已用于其月球着陆器。BE-7针对太空运行进行了优化，使用液氢和液氧作为推进剂。然而，氢原子体积最小，因此容易泄漏。对于复合材料而言，热循环和机械应力可能导致裂纹，从而加剧分子氢的流失。

The company recently had a breakthrough at Launch Site One in Texas, when it completed its first composite liquid hydrogen tanking test. During the test, the tank was pressurized to 100 percent of the maximum force expected during operation for 2.5 hours. It was even successfully tested at 150 percent of this maximum pressure for 10 minutes.

该公司最近在德克萨斯州的一号发射场取得了突破，完成了首次复合材料液氢储罐测试。在测试中，储罐在运行预期最大压力下保持了2.5小时。它甚至成功通过了150%最大压力下持续10分钟的测试。

That gave the company confidence that a GS3 based on composite tanks was a concept that could go forward, and now the company is aiming for a debut in 2028 for a government customer. “We have one customer signed up for cislunar space in 2028,” Limp said. “We are open for business.”

这让公司确信，基于复合材料储罐的GS3方案是可行的，目前公司正计划在2028年为一位政府客户进行首飞。林普表示：“我们已经有一位客户签约了2028年的地月空间任务。我们已准备好开展业务。”