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Blue Origin fires up the engine of its future Moon lander for the first time

• https://www.theverge.com

For the first time, aerospace company Blue Origin has fired up a brand-new engine the company developed for its future Moon lander. The engine, dubbed the BE-7, ignited for a full 35 seconds during a test at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. It's a big step for the company as it prepares to build its lander, named Blue Moon, and eventually send it to the lunar surface.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos tweeted out a video of the test last night. The recording shows flames coming from the engine horizontally, first appearing bright

First hotfire of our #BE7 lunar landing engine just yesterday at Marshall Space Flight Center. Data looks great and hardware is in perfect condition. Test went full planned duration – 35 seconds. Kudos to the whole @BlueOrigin team and grateful to @NASA_Marshall for all the help! pic.twitter.com/cTjjrngumY

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 20, 2019

green and then turning clear for the rest of the test. The green flames can be attributed to the fluid that the BE-7 uses to start the ignition of the engine. Once that fluid burns away, the flames become clear since the engine runs on liquid oxygen and hydrogen — both byproducts of water.


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