Overview
- Blue Origin says the anomaly began in the main oxygen valve of a BE-4 engine during a May 28 static-fire test that destroyed the New Glenn vehicle and damaged Launch Complex 36.
- The company recovered hardware, ran component and engine hot-fire tests, and reports inspections confirmed the valve as the initiating failure though full fault-tree analysis is still underway.
- Blue Origin plans small valve design changes and is manufacturing updated hardware that it says will be ready by the end of this month for quick retrofit to existing BE-4 engines.
- Because two BE-4s also power ULA’s Vulcan, ULA has said Blue Origin will perform needed modifications on Vulcan engines and teams are coordinating inspections and fixes at ULA facilities.
- Blue Origin is rebuilding and modernizing LC-36, working with NASA on upper-stage testing, and says a return-to-flight goal remains this year but final timing depends on completed analysis and rollout of the retrofit hardware which may delay some customer and lunar demonstration missions into 2027.