1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:05,639 Blue Origin is one of the largest and most well funded aerospace companies in the 2 00:00:05,719 --> 00:00:12,080 world, and so far they've managed to establish a solid reputation as the laughing 3 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:16,440 stock of the online space community. We love taking the piss out of Jeff 4 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,519 Bezos and Blue Origin. It's a lot of fun. And while Blue might 5 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:24,679 get the most attention for launching rich folks into space on a Penis rocket, 6 00:00:24,719 --> 00:00:29,320 they've also been quietly developing one of the most important rocket engines of the twenty 7 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:34,200 first century. The BEE four is an engine that the United States desperately needs 8 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:38,359 right now to maintain their presence in low Earth orbit. So the question remains, 9 00:00:38,799 --> 00:00:45,520 can Blue Origin finally deliver? This is the space race? Okay, 10 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:50,320 So instead of jumping straight into a bunch of technical specifications that I only pretend 11 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,880 to understand, let's first talk about why this rocket engine is so important. 12 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:00,320 Because this is no exaggeration on our part. The B four is critical to 13 00:01:00,399 --> 00:01:06,120 the future of American rocketry. This thing has to work. The BEE four 14 00:01:06,239 --> 00:01:11,480 willpower Blue origins own new Glenn rocket, the company's first orbital class vehicle, 15 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,079 which also happens to be one of the largest rockets ever designed, featuring a 16 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:19,760 seven meters diameter, cargo faring, and having the added bonus of a fully 17 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:25,920 reusable booster stage. But this is not the reason that the BEE four is 18 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,079 important. As far as anyone can tell, the only missions that are critical 19 00:01:30,159 --> 00:01:34,519 to the specific capabilities of New Glen are going to be Blue Origins own orbital 20 00:01:34,519 --> 00:01:40,599 Reef space station deployment, and also their undeveloped Blue moon Lander for the Artemis 21 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:44,879 five lunar mission. Now, those are both really cool, we're stoked to 22 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:49,480 see them happen, but they're not immediately critical. What is important right now 23 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:55,079 is getting a new American rocket into service that can handle medium to heavy lifting 24 00:01:55,159 --> 00:02:00,640 duties for NASA Space Force and the private telecommunications industry. The United Launch Alliance 25 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:06,319 Atlas five has been a workhorse rocket for the US space program since two thousand 26 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,960 and two. This vehicle flew ninety seven successful missions over twenty years, delivering 27 00:02:12,039 --> 00:02:15,960 important payloads to low Earth orbit, geosynchronous orbit, the ISS. It landed 28 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:21,080 rovers on Mars, sent probes to orbit Jupiter, out to Pluto, and 29 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:28,080 even into the Sun. It's just a spectacularly versatile and reliable rocket, but 30 00:02:28,159 --> 00:02:31,639 it's suffered from one fatal flaw at the heart of the first stage booster on 31 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:38,639 the Atlas five is an RD one eighty engine, an incredibly powerful dual combustion 32 00:02:38,719 --> 00:02:44,759 chamber, dual nozzle kerosene burning rocket engine. It's a fantastic piece of Russian 33 00:02:45,039 --> 00:02:50,919 engineering. And there is the problem a Russian engine powering an American rocket. 34 00:02:51,199 --> 00:02:54,520 I don't need to explain why that's problematic right now. And operating alongside the 35 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:59,599 Atlas five for the past two decades has been the ULA Delta four Heavy. 36 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:05,560 This is a vehicle specifically designed for getting very heavy objects into very high altitude 37 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,599 orbits, so it did a job that Atlas five couldn't, but overall lack 38 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:14,800 the versatility. Delta four has only flown fifteen missions since two thousand and four, 39 00:03:15,159 --> 00:03:19,599 most of them being top secret military payloads. Delta four made a name 40 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:23,479 for itself as the most badass heavy metal rocket ever because it literally lights itself 41 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:29,120 on fire in the seconds before launched to burn off excess hydrogen, and then 42 00:03:29,159 --> 00:03:34,479 this trio of charred black boosters emerge from the fireball. It does look awesome 43 00:03:34,919 --> 00:03:38,800 anyway. The Delta four Heavy has one more launch remaining before it is permanently 44 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:45,039 retired by ULA. The company's plan has long been to consolidate the Atlas five 45 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:50,199 and Delta four into one single rocket that can match the capabilities of both, 46 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:55,039 and this is the Vulcan Centaur. Vulcan Centaur pairs the size and payload capacity 47 00:03:55,080 --> 00:04:00,800 of the Delta four with the versatile form factor and efficiency of the Atlas five. 48 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:04,199 The biggest change from the Atlas five being the replacement of the dual chamber 49 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:09,479 r D one eighty Russian engine with a pair of Blue Origin B E four 50 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:15,159 engines. So we have two of the most important rockets in the United States 51 00:04:15,199 --> 00:04:18,519 that have already been discontinued, and those are both set to be replaced by 52 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:24,000 one single new rocket design. And that new rocket is going to be powered 53 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,839 by a Blue Origin engine that is also brand new and has never even been 54 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,240 flight tested before. Oh and one of the B fours that was on its 55 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,720 way to be fitted into a future Vulcan booster just exploded on the Blue Origin 56 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:42,040 test and a couple of weeks ago, casting some pretty serious doubt on Blue's 57 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:47,720 ability to manufacture a consistent product. The stakes are very high on this one, 58 00:04:47,879 --> 00:04:53,439 so we ask again, can Blue Origin deliver? On June thirtieth, 59 00:04:53,439 --> 00:04:59,079 Blue Origin experienced the rapid, unscheduled disassembly of ABE four engine at their testing 60 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:03,439 facility in West Texas. According to the company, the engine failure occurred ten 61 00:05:03,519 --> 00:05:08,240 seconds into the test burn. No video has been released to the public, 62 00:05:08,439 --> 00:05:12,639 but according to the people who have seen the film, the explosion was dramatic 63 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:17,199 and caused heavy damage to the testing infrastructure. Now, obviously some amount of 64 00:05:17,199 --> 00:05:21,199 explosion is going to be natural to the testing process of a rocket engine. 65 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:26,759 It is a good thing to find the physical limitations for this kind of hardware 66 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,959 so that you know exactly what it can and can't handle. Elon Musk had 67 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,279 no problem admitting that SpaceX has blown up a bunch of their Raptor engines on 68 00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:40,959 the testing stand and will likely continue blowing them up as they push forward with 69 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:45,480 the development of Raptor version three. Where things start to get troubling, though, 70 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,439 is when we see Raptors blowing up in midflight, like what happened with 71 00:05:48,519 --> 00:05:54,399 the first test flight of the Starship. Failing in a test stand is expected, 72 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:59,240 but failing in a vehicle is dangerous at the least and catastrophic at the 73 00:05:59,319 --> 00:06:03,759 worst. The B four engine that exploded in June was on its way to 74 00:06:03,879 --> 00:06:10,240 become flight engine number three in the second build of the Vulcan Center first stage 75 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:15,240 Booster. One complete Vulcan booster fitted with two B fours has already been flight 76 00:06:15,319 --> 00:06:19,879 certified and is awaiting launch. So what happened to engine number three? Then? 77 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:25,800 If the product was already sold to a customer, then Blue Origin shouldn't 78 00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:30,240 have been doing any kind of experimental stress testing to push it towards failure. 79 00:06:30,399 --> 00:06:34,000 Intentionally, you would think that the test in question was simply to confirm that 80 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:40,480 the engine was operating with spec before going out to ULA, which it clearly 81 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:45,279 was not. So either there is some fundamental flaw in the Bee four that 82 00:06:45,319 --> 00:06:49,639 affects the reliability of the architecture, or this particular engine was just a victim 83 00:06:49,759 --> 00:06:56,160 of poor workmanship. Basically, it wasn't put together properly. Now, obviously 84 00:06:56,279 --> 00:06:59,879 an error on the production line would be a lot more simple to correct than 85 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:03,319 a baked in design flaw, but neither outcome is good, and we don't 86 00:07:03,319 --> 00:07:06,920 know the full story yet. The biggest problem here for Blue Origin is that, 87 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:12,680 according to their own description of the Bee four and its performance characteristics, 88 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:17,279 there really is no good reason for it to have failed at standard operating spec 89 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:23,360 So let's elaborate on that. The line that Blue Origin loves to use when 90 00:07:23,399 --> 00:07:27,560 describing their engine is the BEE four was designed from the beginning to be a 91 00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:32,199 medium performing version of a high performance architecture. So the SpaceX Raptor is an 92 00:07:32,319 --> 00:07:38,399 ultra high pressure, full flow staged combustion cycle engine that is designed to push 93 00:07:38,439 --> 00:07:43,199 the limits of what is physically possible with a chemical rocket. It is a 94 00:07:43,279 --> 00:07:47,680 high performance version of a high performance architecture, and that's why SpaceX has had 95 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:54,240 so many different iterations of the Raptor design and why they are still having trouble 96 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:59,480 with harnessing the power of this engine. While the philosophy at Blue has been 97 00:07:59,519 --> 00:08:03,480 to make an engine that would be capable of raptorlike performance, but to never 98 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:07,600 actually push it anywhere near that edge that SpaceX is riding. So, for 99 00:08:07,639 --> 00:08:13,319 example, the combustion chamber pressure on a SpaceX Raptor two is four thousand, 100 00:08:13,319 --> 00:08:16,480 four hundred psi, and with Raptor three they are now pushing that to five 101 00:08:16,879 --> 00:08:22,120 thousand, one hundred psi. Over at Blue Origin, the chamber pressure of 102 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:26,600 B four is one thousand, nine hundred and forty psi, which is obviously 103 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:31,199 going to be much easier to contain and control. Makes sense right, Blue 104 00:08:31,199 --> 00:08:35,600 says this is a conscious design choice made to lower development risk while meeting performance, 105 00:08:35,799 --> 00:08:41,279 schedule and reusability requirements, which is all fine and good, except the 106 00:08:41,399 --> 00:08:48,240 engines are blowing up under a standard pre flight certification test, which doesn't really 107 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:52,120 support Blue Origins design theory, does it. We draw so many comparisons between 108 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,519 the B four and the Raptor because these are two of the first rocket engines 109 00:08:56,559 --> 00:09:01,559 to utilize a new type of chemical fuel, which is liquefied natural gas, 110 00:09:01,639 --> 00:09:07,559 also known as methane. Obviously, methane is nothing new, it's been around 111 00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:09,840 since the birth of the universe, but the process of cooling it down to 112 00:09:09,879 --> 00:09:16,120 a cryogenic temperature to make liquid rocket fuel is a very recent development, and 113 00:09:16,159 --> 00:09:18,559 so far, no one has been able to get a rocket all the way 114 00:09:18,639 --> 00:09:24,360 into low Earth orbit using a methane powered engine. There have been attempts. 115 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:30,080 Dealing with liquefied natural gas or LNG is a lot more complicated than your typical 116 00:09:30,159 --> 00:09:33,799 rocket fuel, which is just a purified version of kerosene, but LANG does 117 00:09:33,919 --> 00:09:39,159 have some major benefits. For one, LANG can be used to self pressurize 118 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:45,159 its own fuel tank. This is known as autogenous pressurization. So the way 119 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:48,600 that rockets are designed, they need to have a certain amount of internal pressure 120 00:09:48,919 --> 00:09:54,480 inside their tanks in order to stop them from collapsing in on themselves. And 121 00:09:54,519 --> 00:09:58,399 because methane has such a low boiling point of negative one hundred and sixty one 122 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:03,559 degrees celsius, it's to start evaporating into a gas pretty much as soon as 123 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,039 it gets pumped into the fuel tank, and it's going to continue to boil 124 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:11,639 off throughout the launch process. That gas is going to create enough pressure to 125 00:10:11,759 --> 00:10:16,039 maintain the integrity of the fuel tank, so even as the liquid is burned 126 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:20,120 away during flight, the gas will keep the tank full and keep the rocket 127 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:24,879 body strong. If you look at the SpaceX Starship as it's being prepped for 128 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:28,639 launch, there is a big white cloud shooting out from the side of the 129 00:10:28,720 --> 00:10:33,840 rocket. That is excess methane gas being vented from the fuel tank to regulate 130 00:10:33,879 --> 00:10:37,519 the internal pressure. With a rocket fuel like kerosene that stays liquid at ambient 131 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:41,759 temperature, you still need something to fill the void and maintain tank pressure, 132 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:46,759 so rockets will use big canisters of helium gas. Helium is currently in short 133 00:10:46,799 --> 00:10:50,600 supply on Earth, so we should be conserving it as much as possible. 134 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,320 So that's neat. But the real advantage of methane fuel is that it is 135 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:01,480 clean burning. Now that's not to say a methane burning rocket is environmentally friendly. 136 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:05,679 It still releases a bunch of carbon and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, 137 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:09,399 which is bad. But the burning of methane and oxygen doesn't leave behind a 138 00:11:09,519 --> 00:11:16,159 solid carbon residue on the internal components the way that a long chain hydrocarbon like 139 00:11:16,279 --> 00:11:20,840 kerosene does. In order to reuse a kerosene burning engine like a SpaceX Merlin, 140 00:11:22,159 --> 00:11:26,759 you have to go in and scrub out all of the leftover carbon deposits 141 00:11:26,759 --> 00:11:31,919 from inside the engine. Obviously, this doesn't stop SpaceX from reusing Merlin engines 142 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,639 on the Falconine booster, but it's not ideal. So in theory, a 143 00:11:35,759 --> 00:11:41,639 methane engine should be capable of rapid reuse, meaning that you could land a 144 00:11:41,679 --> 00:11:45,759 booster, return it to the launchpad, refuel, and fly again, all 145 00:11:45,799 --> 00:11:50,600 within a couple of hours. Elon Musk talks about launching the same super heavy 146 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:54,360 booster up to three times in one day. This is going to be critical 147 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:58,720 for the new Glen, which is supposed to have a fully reusable first stage 148 00:11:58,759 --> 00:12:03,679 booster, and the capability is also going to be taken advantage of by ULA 149 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:09,279 with the Vulcan Centaur. They don't have any plans on trying to land the 150 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:13,639 entire booster core, but ULA has developed a system where the thrust section of 151 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:18,399 the booster will separate following main engine cutoff, and it's going to deploy an 152 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:24,559 inflatable heat shield that will allow the two engines to safely fall back to Earth 153 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:28,600 and land in the ocean where they can be recovered and reinstalled in a new 154 00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:33,759 Vulcan booster. So even though the idea of reusing an entire rocket booster is 155 00:12:33,799 --> 00:12:37,639 still out of reach for most rocket builders, the B four opens up the 156 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:43,279 capability for them to at least reuse the engines, which is still a massive 157 00:12:43,399 --> 00:12:48,480 improvement over the old system. So Blue Origins first orbital rocket engine is a 158 00:12:48,759 --> 00:12:54,759 very important piece of hardware, not just for themselves but for the entire spaceflight 159 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:58,399 industry. But in true Blue Origin style, the B four is also a 160 00:12:58,399 --> 00:13:03,440 bit problem matic and unpredictable, which is about as much as you can expect 161 00:13:03,519 --> 00:13:07,279 from an aerospace company that has yet to actually get a product into outer space, 162 00:13:07,639 --> 00:13:11,039 but it's definitely going to make for an interesting story to follow in the 163 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,799 months and years to come.