Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has revealed the BE-7 lunar landing engine, which was successfully tested for the fourth time on December 4.
Blue Origin is rushing to develop engines for NASA’s next mission to the moon, Artemis 3. The purpose of the mission is to bring the first woman to the moon, according to NASA. “This is the engine that will bring the first woman to the surface of the moon,” Bezos said in a Dec. 4 post on Instagram with video of the BE-7 rocket engine firing.
But Blue Origin isn’t the only aerospace company vying for a contract with NASA. Two other companies, Dynetics and SpaceX, are also fighting to win the deal. In May 2020, NASA signed a 10-month contract with a total investment of 967 million USD with 3 companies to develop the preliminary design of the landing system for the Artemis 3 mission, which is expected to land. lunar year 2024.
The BE-7 engine is designed for Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Moon landing station announced in 2019. This engine runs on liquid oxygen and hydrogen, two fuels that are found on the lunar surface as of ice. . Additionally, the engine has 4,535 kg of thrust and can be reduced to 907 kg for a soft moon landing, according to Blue Origin. The BE-7 engine has been tested several times at NASA’s Marshall Aerospace Center in Alabama. This time the engine starts in about 20 seconds, bringing the total test time to about 20 minutes.
In addition to the lunar landing system, Blue Origin is also developing missile systems. In recent years, the company has mainly focused on the New Shepard Suborbital Flight System, a reusable rocket that can carry six passengers into space at the same time. However, Blue Origin has yet to test the New Glenn missile, which is designed to carry goods into orbit.
