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GAO: Blue Origin BE-4 Engine Technical Issues Threaten ULA’s Vulcan Booster Schedule

By Doug Messier
Parabolic Arc
June 21, 2021
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BE-4 engine firing (Credit: Blue Origin)

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Technical issues related to related to “the igniter and booster capabilities” with Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine could delay the maiden flight of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur booster scheduled for late this year, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“A joint program office and ULA team is tracking these challenges, and NSSL officials told us Vulcan remains on track to support first launches and certification in 2021. However, if ULA cannot complete engine qualification before the 2021 flight certification, the program might continue to rely on ULA’s Atlas V—which uses engines manufactured in the Russian Federation—to support ULA’s 2022 launches, despite a nearly $2.9 billion investment in new launch system development,” according to GAO’s Weapons Systems Annual Assessment report.

ULA and SpaceX were awarded contracts last year to launch national security payloads for the 2022-27 period.

ULA’s Atlas V rockets are powered by Russian RD-180 boosters. The U.S. Congress has mandated that all national security payloads be launched on rockets powered by U.S.-built engines. The BE-4 engine will power Vulcan Centaur’s first stage and also be used in Blue Origin’s New Glenn booster.

Although ULA is phasing out its Delta IV Heavy booster, the company plans to continue launching Atlas V boosters using the RD-180 engines. The Pentagon’s prohibition does not apply to ULA’s launches for civilian agencies such as NASA or commercial payloads.

For example, ULA will continue to use Atlas V boosters to launch Boeing’s Starliner crew vehicle to the International Space Station. Amazon has also signed a contract for nine Atlas V launches for its Project Kuiper satellite broadband constellation.

GAO found that SpaceX is in good shape to launch defense payloads.

“SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles are certified to conduct national security launches. The Falcon Heavy is undergoing some modifications to fully meet launch requirements and is on track to support its first mission in May 2021,” the report said.

The estimated May launch date is out of date. Spaceflight Now’s launch schedule has Falcon Heavy flying the U.S. Space Force’s USSF 44 mission in October.

GAO’s assessment of the ULA and SpaceX programs is below.

Weapons Systems Annual Assessment
Government Accountability Office
June 2021

Credit: ULA & SpaceX

National Security Space Launch (NSSL)

The Space Force’s NSSL provides space lift support for national security and other government missions. Currently, NSSL procures launch services from United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), supporting U.S. policy, as stated in law, to undertake actions appropriate to ensure to the maximum extent practicable the U.S. has the capabilities necessary to launch and insert national security payloads into space when needed. We focused our review on NSSL’s investments in new launch systems from U.S. launch providers.

Current Status

In August 2020, the program told us it competitively awarded 5-year launch service contracts to ULA and SpaceX for approximately 34 launches beginning in 2022 and planned to continue through 2027.

NSSL faces technical challenges to meeting its goal of ending reliance on rocket engines manufactured in the Russian Federation by the end of 2021. The Carl Levin and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, as amended, prohibited, with certain exceptions, the award or renewal of a contract for the procurement of property or services for National Security Space launch activities under the NSSL—then-Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle—program if such contract carries out such activities using rocket engines designed or manufactured in the Russian Federation. A subsequent amendment to the statute provided an exception for contracts awarded through 2022 for such procurements that include the use of a total of 18 rocket engines designed or manufactured in the Russian Federation. A U.S. produced rocket engine under development for ULA’s Vulcan launch vehicle is experiencing technical challenges related to the igniter and booster capabilities required and may not be qualified in time to support first launches beginning in 2021. A joint program office and ULA team is tracking these challenges, and NSSL officials told us Vulcan remains on track to support first launches and certification in 2021. However, if ULA cannot complete engine qualification before the 2021 flight certification, the program might continue to rely on ULA’s Atlas V—which uses engines manufactured in the Russian Federation—to support ULA’s 2022 launches, despite a nearly $2.9 billion investment in new launch system development. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles are certified to conduct national security launches. The Falcon Heavy is undergoing some modifications to fully meet launch requirements and is on track to support its first mission in May 2021.

Program Office Comments

We provided a draft of this assessment to the program office for review and comment. The program office provided technical comments, which we incorporated. The program office stated that it has been extremely successful and efficient with unprecedented mission success and a $22 billion reduction to life-cycle costs, representing a 28 percent unit cost decrease since 2013. It added that the Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement contract provides assured access manifest flexibility, and incorporates industry innovation.

15 responses to “GAO: Blue Origin BE-4 Engine Technical Issues Threaten ULA’s Vulcan Booster Schedule”

  1. TheBrett says:
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    More technical problems with the BE-4? That’s a huge bummer.

    • duheagle says:
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      In fairness, these reports are always at least a bit retro by the time they’re published. That said, it would be nice if Jeff and Tory provided some up-to-the-minute straight talk about just where the BE-4 and Vulcan programs currently stand. But I suspect we will have to continue to do without any such and simply await developments.

      • Terry Stetler says:
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        Last summer they hired a new lead engineer for BE-4 Block 2, and this week there’s a LinkedIn ad for a new New Glenn lead.

        https://tinyurl.com/ry9dvs2r

        • duheagle says:
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          That’s something, anyway. But what is really needed is a wholesale replacement of Blue’s upper management. Perhaps Bezos will actually do that. Musk did it anent SpaceX’s Starlink division and the results of that speak for themselves.

      • William Naughton says:
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        Tony said the BE-4 turbopump issues were solved and the engine was ready for production in 10/2020. So, I would guess he’s reluctant to repeat any such statements. Nor can he admit BO is Way behind getting an engine to work Once when its supposed to be rated for 100 flights.
        Vulcan is not yet recoverable (circa 2025 by ULA accounts)… so the issue is the “reusable” engine won’t support One flight.

  2. Stanistani says:
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    Oh hey, Disqus is back. Didn’t ULA force Blue Origin to make a number of design changes to the BE-4 after they signed up with them?

  3. Andrew Tubbiolo says:
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    Playing devils advocate here. The embargo on Russian engines was mainly to prevent the Russians from being empowered to shut down US national security space launch by halting deliveries of engines for the Atlas V, and to punish them for invading Crimea. Falcon 9 is the logical Atlas V replacement, it’s all American, and more responsive. Atlas V is only being run as a charity program at this point. The US government was more than happy to operate with a ULA monopoly until the Falcon 9 proved itself. If a monopoly of Atlas V and Delta IV was tolerable, a monopoly of Falcon 9 would be a bachelor party in comparison. It could be argued that ULA is a hobby rocket operation to preserve the memory of obsolete launch vehicle techniques. Having the Russians in the critical path of such an operation is no big deal.

    • duheagle says:
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      I don’t disagree in principle. But there is the annoying little detail that USAF, as a parting shot before handing over NatSec space launch to Space Force, chose ULA as the 60% recipient of NatSec launch contracts. I hope that deal contains provisions allowing SpaceX to be awarded any contracts ULA is unable to fly by virtue of having to continue relying on Atlas V because Vulcan is late and/or proves insufficiently reliable out of the box and not having any more legal RD-180s to use on said Atlas Vs. If that’s, in fact, the case, then your notion about the inconsequentiality of ULA’s current, and possibly future, limitations is correct. In other words, I hope assured access to space trumps the 60-40 split in launch awards should ULA have trouble coming through for any reason.

  4. pollydextrous says:
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    I wish a link was included for that report, I’ve been trying to find it on the GAO site without any joy.

  5. Mr Snarky Answer says:
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    Never send a boy to do a man’s job

  6. OpenTrackRacer says:
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    The author needs to sort out his terminology between booster, rocket and engine…

  7. woodruff Crandall says:
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    Current ULA status indicates a 1st Vulcan launch window of March 2022

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