Blue Origin unveils first completed BE-4 rocket engine
The competition heats up: Blue Origin today unveiled to the public its first completed BE-4 rocket engine, being built for its New Glenn orbital rocket as well as ULA’s Vulcan rocket.
More important however was that the company expects the second and third engines to come off the assembly line very soon.
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The competition heats up: Blue Origin today unveiled to the public its first completed BE-4 rocket engine, being built for its New Glenn orbital rocket as well as ULA’s Vulcan rocket.
More important however was that the company expects the second and third engines to come off the assembly line very soon.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Isn’t it a problem for Jeff Bezos that he is running total hate propaganda against the president in his WaPo? That the president has said that Bezos’ Amazon is an unhealthy monopoly that should be regulated. So, that same Jeff owns a company Blue Origin that is looking for monies from the president’s NASA and from the ULA who are dependent on not alienating the president.
And Jeff Bezos bought WaPo in order to *improve* his political influence!? It shows how one bad idea can ruin all good ideas realized before it. I doubt BO will ever fly anything to orbit unless Jeff Bezos sells it all.
“Isn’t it a problem for Jeff Bezos that he is running total hate propaganda against the president in his WaPo?”
The pissy attitude towards non-progressive politicians is why Bezos bought WaPo in the first place, and I think Trump realizes it. By 2011, it was obvious that the US politics, under Obama, was becoming like Chicago’s. In Chicago, any retailer who doesn’t want to be shut down regularly for “permit inspections” and other government interference in their operations will make regular contributions to the Cook County Democratic Party, and will put a sign in his window stating his adherence to the Party.
Amazon, where Bezos gets his capital for Blue Origin from, is the planet’s largest retailer, and he needs it to *not* be treated to the sort of raids that shut down Gibson Guitar for much of Obama’s presidency. So, in 2011, he bought the broke WaPo, and kept it running even though it was losing money, as his sign in the window. It’s like owning a snippy snarling little dog for show, that has to be walked in public, though. If he believes that the Democrats might win the 2018 and 2020 elections, he will want to kept the snarling little beast as his sign that he was “faithful through all 4 horrid Trump years”.
However, on the day of his first meeting with the rest of the Trump presidential advisory board for 2021, I would counsel all employable WaPo employees to have other jobs already lined up, or even be at other employment already, because the years of losing money will be an excellent excuse to finally put the nasty little beast down. He knows that Trump, despite his other faults, is *not* a Chicago pol, like Obama was. So, he’s got time to be sure of his footwork before he makes this move.
The Raptor appears to be about six months ahead. These engines are going to be game changers.
I don’t expect politics will affect the competition much.