‘If at first you don’t succeed’, the old saying goes, ‘try, try again.’
That’s what Blue Origin did last night at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral. After an apparently aborted static fire earlier in the evening, the company was able to successfully complete the vital test shortly before 10 pm ET.
The first attempt saw the water-based sound suppression system activate before a brief ignition and quick shutdown. Nonplussed, Blue’s engineers recycled their systems and around 9:59 pm, all seven BE-4 engines were started, with Blue Origin later saying that they “performed nominally with a 38 second duration test including all seven engines operating at 100% thrust for 22 seconds.”
Dave Limp, Blue Origin’s CEO, said later on social media that, “We extended the hotfire duration this time to simulate the landing burn sequence by shutting down the non-gimballed engines after ramping down to 50 percent thrust, then shutting down the outboard gimballed engines while ramping the center engine to 80 percent thrust. This helps us understand fluid interactions between active and inactive engine feedlines during landing.”
Limp went on to add that the NG-2 launch campaign can move on to payload integration and final preparation of the 322-foot tall rocket for flight. That flight is currently slated for NET November 9th, where it will carry two Rocket Lab-built satellites destined for Mars.’