BE-4 is a Blue Origin engine that burns liquefied natural gas, and it flies on Vulcan Centaur and New Glenn.
blue-origin-be-4 Blue Origin's BE-4 burns liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas. Two engines power United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur and seven power Blue Origin's New Glenn. In 2015 Blue Origin gave the sea-level thrust as 550,000 pounds-force, and in November 2025 it announced that maximum thrust had risen to 2,847 kilonewtons (640,000 pounds-force).
The BE-4 uses oxygen-rich staged combustion. A single preburner makes hot, oxygen-rich gas that spins one turbine, and that turbine drives both the fuel and oxygen pumps. The gas then goes on to mix with fuel in the main chamber. Parts of the oxygen boost pump are 3D printed.
BE-4 engines power ULA’s Vulcan Centaur (two engines) and Blue Origin’s New Glenn (seven engines). It is the first large US engine to burn liquefied natural gas on an oxygen-rich staged-combustion cycle.
The oxygen boost pump feeds the main oxygen pump, and many of its components are 3D printed. In a 2017 email, Blue Origin's founder said the housing is one printed aluminium part and the turbine stages are printed from Monel, a nickel alloy. The turbine nozzle and rotors are printed too and need little machining.
The main chamber is cooled by propellant flowing through its walls, and the main injector mixes the preburner's exhaust gas with fuel. Each engine has a single combustion chamber and nozzle, unlike the Russian RD-180's twin chambers. Parts of the chamber and nozzle are 3D printed.
The main turbopump rides on hydrostatic bearings rather than ball or roller bearings. Main valves control the flow of propellant to the preburner and the chamber. Burning liquefied natural gas also lets the tanks be pressurised with the propellant's own gas, so no helium pressurisation hardware is needed.
Blue Origin tests engine components in Kent, Washington, and in Texas. A dedicated liquefied natural gas test site near Van Horn, Texas, opened in May 2014 and can test thrust above one million pounds-force. In June 2017 the company announced a new factory in Huntsville, Alabama, to build the BE-4.
The housing of the oxygen boost pump, printed as a single part. Blue Origin does not name the alloy.
The stages of the boost pump's hydraulic turbine, 3D printed from this nickel alloy.
Two BE-4 engines power the first stage of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, and seven power Blue Origin's New Glenn, with nine planned for a larger version. ULA chose the engine in September 2018, after an initial agreement in September 2014. The BE-4 is meant to end ULA's reliance on the Russian-built RD-180. It builds on the flight heritage of Blue Origin's hydrogen engine, the BE-3, and Blue Origin makes it itself.
Blue Origin
7 engines on the reusable first stage of the current 7x2 version
9 engines on the first stage of the planned 9x4 version
United Launch Alliance
2 engines on the Vulcan first stage, 2446.5 kN (550k lbf) each at sea level
builds on BE-3 flight heritage
NPO Energomash
intended to end ULA's reliance on the Russian RD-180 first-stage engine
designs and builds the engine; the BE-4 is a commercial development funded by private industry
ULA selected the BE-4 for the Vulcan Centaur booster stage (ULA press release of 27 September 2018)
flies BE-4 on its own New Glenn first stage; first New Glenn flight 16 January 2025
Blue Origin has not published a materials list for the main chamber, injector or turbopumps. The only metals it has named belong to the oxygen boost pump, in a 2017 email. It names no supplier for any part. Many early descriptions cover test engines, not the one that flies.
What is written above is built from these numbers and quotes. Each row links to the page it was taken from. Get all of it as JSON, or ask our MCP server.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Sea-level thrust (2015) | 550,000 lbf |
| Propellants | Liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas |
| Development start | 2011 |
| Sea-level thrust per engine (Vulcan guide) | 2446.5 kN (550k lbf) |
| Propellants on Vulcan | liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas |
| Power cycle | oxygen-rich staged combustion |
| Deep throttling demonstrated | to at least 40 percent power |
| First flight | 8 January 2024, Vulcan Centaur |
| First hot fire of the full engine | October 2017, at 50 percent thrust for 3 seconds |
| Full-thrust testing | 100 percent by August 2019 |
| Thrust increase announced November 2025 | 2,847 kN (640,000 lbf) maximum thrust |
| Staged-combustion tests by September 2015 | more than 100 |
Each material named in the sources: where it is used here, which other products use it, and its key numbers when its material page exists.
Used in 1 partPump housing
Used in 1 partHydraulic turbine stages
Only the oxidizer boost pump housing (aluminum) and turbine stages (Monel) have a stated material. Components, suppliers and links were added from public sources. A material is left blank where no source states it.
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pump housing“The housing is a single printed aluminum part” | aluminum (alloy not stated)aluminium | — | — |
| Hydraulic turbine stages“all of the stages of the hydraulic turbine are printed from Monel, a nickel alloy” | Monel (nickel alloy)monel | — | — |
| Turbine nozzle and rotors“The turbine nozzle and rotors are also 3-D printed and require minimum machining to achieve the required fits.” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thrust chamber and nozzle“including the use of additive manufacturing” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxygen-rich preburnerburns the oxidiser-rich flow that drives the turbine in the oxygen-rich staged-combustion cycle“subscale oxygen-rich preburner development” | Not said | — | — |
| Main turbopump (one turbine driving the fuel and oxygen pumps)feeds the preburner and main chamber“a single turbine driving both the fuel and oxygen pumps” | Not said | — | — |
| Oxidizer boost pump (OBP)assembly that feeds the main oxygen pump; its key components are 3-D printed“Our Ox Boost Pump (OBP) design leverages 3-D additive manufacturing to make many of the key components.” | Not said | — | Supplier: Blue Origin |
| LOx impeller and turbineoxygen-side pump wheel and drive turbine, shown in test photos“BE-4 LOx impeller and turbine” | Not said | — | — |
| Main valvescontrol propellant flow to the preburner and chamber“testing of the turbopumps and main valves” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main injector assemblymixes the preburner exhaust gas with fuel in the main chamber“staged combustion testing of the preburner and main injector assembly” | Not said | — | — |
| Regeneratively cooled thrust chamber with multiple full-scale injector elementsmain combustion chamber“regeneratively cooled thrust chamber using multiple full-scale injector elements” | Not said | — | — |
| Single combustion chamber and nozzleone chamber and nozzle per engine, unlike the RD-180's twin chambers“although it uses only a single combustion chamber and nozzle.” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autogenous tank pressurisation from LNGremoves the need for helium pressurisation hardware“LNG enables autogenous tank pressurization” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| LNG test facility near Van Horn, Texasdedicated engine test site, commissioned May 2014“Blue Origin has built a dedicated LNG testing facility near Van Horn, Texas” | Not said | — | — |
| Component test facilities, Kent, Washingtonengine component testing“Engine component testing is underway at Blue Origin test facilities in Kent, Washington, and Texas.” | Not said | — | — |
| Engine factory, Huntsville, AlabamaBE-4 production facility“In June 2017, Blue Origin announced that they would build a new facility in Huntsville, Alabama, to manufacture BE-4.” | Not said | — | — |
No main chamber, injector, preburner or turbopump alloys stated. No standards or grades. More detail: Blue Origin has not published a BE-4 bill of materials: turbopump housings, impellers, preburner, injector, main chamber liner, nozzle and valve alloys are not stated beyond the aluminium housing and Monel turbine of the oxidizer boost pump already in the entry. No supplier is named for any BE-4 sub-part. The thrust-vector-control actuators, gimbal range, igniters and engine controller are not described in any readable source (blueorigin.com returned HTTP 429 on every attempt). Several statements are from 2015 ULA and Blue Origin development reports and describe test hardware, not the flight engine; the November 2025 thrust increase and the first-flight dates come from Wikipedia, whose cited Blue Origin page could not be opened. The BE-4U vacuum variant planned for an earlier New Glenn upper stage is not listed because the plan was dropped. Quotes from the Vulcan User's Guide and the ULA BE-4 fact sheet were machine-checked against the PDF text; quotes from Wikipedia, Via Satellite, Spaceflight Now and the ULA news page came through a text extractor and were not machine-checked. More detail: Blue Origin has not published a BE-4 bill of materials: turbopump housings, impellers, preburner, injector, main chamber liner, nozzle and valve alloys are not stated beyond the aluminium housing and Monel turbine of the oxidizer boost pump already in the entry. No supplier is named for any BE-4 sub-part. The thrust-vector-control actuators, gimbal range, igniters and engine controller are not described in any readable source (blueorigin.com returned HTTP 429 on every attempt). Several statements are from 2015 ULA and Blue Origin development reports and describe test hardware, not the flight engine; the November 2025 thrust increase and the first-flight dates come from Wikipedia, whose cited Blue Origin page could not be opened. The BE-4U vacuum variant planned for an earlier New Glenn upper stage is not listed because the plan was dropped. Quotes from the Vulcan User's Guide and the ULA BE-4 fact sheet were machine-checked against the PDF text; quotes from Wikipedia, Via Satellite, Spaceflight Now and the ULA news page came through a text extractor and were re-checked in a second fetch pass but not against a saved copy of the page.
Collected from public pages and documents, checked 4 Nov 2026.
Published · Updated
