Blue Origin said Tuesday it recently completed acceptance testing of its BE-3 rocket engine, calling it the first new hydrogen engine to be developed in the United States in more than a decade.
“The BE-3 has now been fired for more than 30,000 seconds over the course of 450 tests,” Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement.
The BE-3 is not the rocket engine being co-developed with launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) for a next-generation rocket engine. That engine, the fourth generation BE-4, will be a liquid oxygen, liquefied natural gas (LNG) rocket engine delivering 555,000 pound force (lbf) of thrust at sea level. The BE-3 is for vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) vehicles. The BE-3 testing profile included multiple missile duty cycles, deep throttling and off-nominal test points.
ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].