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      ULA continues investigation of Centaur stage “anomaly”

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 7 April, 2023 - 18:27

    ULA stacks its Centaur V upper stage onto the first flight version of the Vulcan rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

    Enlarge / ULA stacks its Centaur V upper stage onto the first flight version of the Vulcan rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (credit: ULA)

    On the evening of March 29, at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, United Launch Alliance started pressurizing the upper stage of its new Vulcan rocket. But then, suddenly, something went wrong with this Centaur upper stage.

    Shortly after the incident, to his credit, the chief executive of United Launch Alliance, Tory Bruno, was quick to acknowledge on Twitter that something had happened: "Keeping you posted: During Qual testing of Centaur V structural article at MSFC, the hardware experienced an anomaly."

    Unpacking this tweet a little bit, Bruno is saying that during qualification testing—the process of testing rocket engines and stages on the ground to determine their behavior during flight-like conditions—the Centaur stage had a problem. More than a week later, however, there are more questions than answers about the accident.

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      ULA chief says the BE-4 rocket engine’s turbopump issues are resolved

      Eric Berger · news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 26 October, 2020 - 15:03

    A BE-4 rocket engine undergoes tests in West Texas.

    Enlarge / A BE-4 rocket engine undergoes tests in West Texas. (credit: Blue Origin)

    Blue Origin appears to have solved some development issues related to the turbopumps in its powerful BE-4 rocket engine .

    United Launch Alliance chief executive Tory Bruno said Friday that the problem was "sorted out," and that the full-scale, flight-configured BE-4 engine is now accumulating a lot of time on the test stand. Bruno made his comments about one hour into The Space Show with David Livingston.

    Bruno's company, ULA, is buying the BE-4 engine to provide thrust for the first stage of its upcoming Vulcan-Centaur rocket . This booster may make its debut next year, although ULA is still awaiting delivery of BE-4s for the first flight. Two of these large engine—each providing about 25 percent more thrust than the RS-25s used on the Space Shuttle—will power each Vulcan rocket.

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