Hotfire Videos

System Overview

For more specific, up-to-date information about Blue Origin and the BE-4 engine, I'd recommend heading over to the Blue Origin website. But for a brief contextual overview, the diagram below identifies many of the major components that make up the BE-4 engine.

My Role

For much of my time at Blue Origin, I've worked as an Systems Design Engineer for the BE-4 program. The engine systems design team performs two crucial tasks: it configures the top level engine design and it designs all of the connecting parts in the engine. These connecting parts include all of the ancillary systems, ducts, secondary structure, instrumentation, and assorted tubing. For the BE-4, these parts are approximately 80% of the total engine part count. In this capacity, my daily work has involved:
  • Detailed Design and Drafting
  • Design/Drafting reviews and oversight
  • BOM Management
  • Structural analysis and FEA
  • ​Large Assembly Management
  • Configuration Data Management
  • Testing and Verification plan writing
While on this team, I have owned many different projects and components, including:
  • All high pressure and low pressure propellant ducts
  • All flexural ducts and flex hoses
  • All interfaces with vehicle customers, both internal and external
  • The vast majority of all ancillary systems, including:
    • Hydraulic supply and return
    • Pneumatic supply for purge and actuation
    • Propellant repressurization
    • Main pump hydrostatic bearing supply and return
While in this capacity, I have at various points owned more components than any other engineer in the company, and in 2018 set the company record for most drawings released in a single calendar year.

Advanced Development Programs: Space Vehicle

Overview

The Space Vehicle program is Blue Origin's first foray into human orbital spaceflight. It's still somewhat secretive, so details are very limited. The critical, publicly-accessible information is:
  • It will fly on Blue Origin's New Glenn Booster
  • It will carry some number of human passengers to orbit

My Role

I act as the primary propulsion engineer on this project, and in this capacity I work to define the requirements, architecture, and detailed design of the propulsion system. The propulsion system encompasses:
  • Attitude control
  • Orbital maneuvering
  • Launch abort/escape
My responsibilities in this capacity are broad and varied. They include much of the above responsibilities, as well as:
  • Architecture/propulsion trade studies
  • Cost analyses
  • Operations analyses