Washington D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation congratulates the team at Blue Origin for their successful full mission static firing of the BE-3 liquid hydrogen rocket engine. In a test at the company’s West Texas test facility, the BE-3 engine demonstrated deep throttle, full power, long-duration and restart operations. The BE-3 is the first large scale liquid hydrogen-fueled engine to be developed for production in the U.S. since the RS-68 more than a decade ago. The engine development was supported by NASA as part of its Commercial Crew Program.
“It is exciting to see a capable new American engine on the test stand,” said CSF President Michael Lopez-Alegria. “Blue Origin’s engine test is another step towards both suborbital and orbital capabilities for the U.S. We applaud the team for their successful milestone and look forward to many more.”
For video and photographs of the test, see http://www.blueorigin.com/media
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.
About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever-higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s member companies, which include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers, are creating thousands of high-tech jobs nationwide, working to preserve American leadership in aerospace through technology innovation, and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. For more information please visit www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Sirisha Bandla at sirisha@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.347.1418.
