Blue Origin

With mighty aspirations comes a need for mighty rockets. That was theme of the "Heavy Lift" panel that took the stage at the 33rd annual Space Symposium in Colorado today and New Atlas was on hand to find out more about space telescopes, the Blue Moon project and the "tyranny of the fairing."

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has entered the reusable launcher race with its Next Generation Launch System (NGLS), also known as the Vulcan rocket. This will incorporate a rocket engine assembly that is snared in mid-air by a helicopter after reentering the Earth's atmosphere

Blue Origin has taken a step closer to lifting into space by announcing that its BE‑3 rocket engine has completed acceptance testing, opening the door to its first flight. The BE-3 is part of Blue Origin's program to develop a completely reusable launch system.

NASA announced on Tuesday that Blue Origin successfully test fired its new BE-3 hydrogen/oxygen rocket engine at the company’s West Texas facility in Van Horn. The test was a series of static firings to simulate the engine sequence of an actual suborbital flight from lift off to landing

Blue Origin successful test fired its 100,000 lb (444,840 N) thrust BE-3 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine thrust chamber.