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The BE-3 rocket engine will power the launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, shown here in a rendering. 

Blue Origin, the commercial space venture founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, says it has completed acceptance testing of its BE-3 rocket engine, which it describes as the first new hydrogen engine to be developed in the U.S. in more than a decade.

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Blue Origin’s BE-3 engine throttles to its maximum 110,000-lbf thrust during acceptance testing at the company’s dedicated facility in West Texas. (Photo: Blue Origin)

The rocket engine is being developed initially to power Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft for suborbital flight. Acceptance testing means the rocket is shown to meet the key requirements of the project.

The testing took place inside a Blue Origin facility in West Texas, but Bezos says the company will soon put the new rocket engine to the “ultimate test of flight.”

The BE-3 rocket engine is designed for vertical takeoff and landing — allowing for the recovery of rockets after launch, a key step toward making commercial spaceflight more economical.

SpaceX and Blue Origin are among the commercial space companies pursuing this goal, and the companies are in a dispute over Blue Origin’s patent on vertical landings of rockets at sea.

Announcing the testing milestone today, Bezos said in a Blue Origin news release, “The BE‑3 has now been fired for more than 30,000 seconds over the course of 450 tests. We test, learn, refine and then test again to push our engines. The Blue Origin team did an outstanding job exploring the corners of what the BE‑3 can do and soon we’ll put it to the ultimate test of flight.”

He adds, “Liquid hydrogen is challenging, deep throttling is challenging and reusability is challenging. This engine has all three. The rewards are highest performance, vertical landing even with a single-engine vehicle and low cost. And, as a future upper stage engine, hydrogen greatly increases payload capabilities.”

Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., is simultaneously developing a more powerful fourth-generation rocket engine, the BE-4, which uses liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas to produce greater thrust. That engine has been chosen by the United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to power ULA’s next-generation rockets.

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