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Blue Origin Expands Production of Rocket Engine

The BE-4 engine is slated for use on ULA's Vulcan rockets.
The BE-4 engine is slated for use on ULA's Vulcan rockets.

Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos penned a deal to increase production of a new rocket engine. The deal expands production of a BE-4 rocket engine that will be used by United Launch Alliance for its Vulcan rocket.

That rocket will be used for missions to destinations like low earth orbit and deep space.

These Blue Origin BE-4 rocket engines could replace ones that are only being made by the Russians right now and currently used on the Atlas V.

How Blue Origin will fill the order, or where they will manufacture the engines wasn’t disclosed, but Bezos is scheduled to make a significant announcement next week at Cape Canaveral.

The first Vulcan launches are scheduled for 2019.

Brendan Byrne is WMFE's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the WMFE newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing WMFE's internship program.

Byrne also hosts WMFE's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration.