BusinessRockets

Launcher Test Fires E-2 Engine

Image: Launcher

Launcher has completed testing of its E-2 liquid rocket engine at NASA Stennis Space Center, the Hawthorne rocket startup announced this morning. The 3-D printed engine reached full thrust capacity during a Thursday test fire.

E-2: Launcher is building a closed-cycle, staged-combustion E-2 engine to loft a small-lift rocket currently in development. The engine runs on LOX/RP-1 propellant and its chamber is made out of one solid piece of copper alloy. 

  • The Thursday test fire achieved 10 metric tons of thrust and 100 bar of combustion pressure. The engine reached 90% efficiency during the test. 
  • The E-2 team is planning to tweak the engine to remove all film cooling before the next test, aiming to increase its efficiency to 98%.
  • Film cooling = creating a barrier of coolant between the hot gas in the nozzle and the solid structure of the engine.

“This test was conducted without the pump, which we are developing in parallel,” CEO Max Haot told Payload. The long-duration test will be the first with the integrated turbopump. In Launcher’s next test campaign, “we’re aiming to get some blue Mach diamonds and world’s best specific impulse performance metric claims for a 3D-printed engine.”

Launcher Light

Launcher is in the process of building the small-lift launch vehicle, which is targeting a debut flight in 2024. Launcher Light will use one E-2 engine to bring 150kg of payload to LEO. The rocket is planned to be ground-transportable and require “minimal to no permanent infrastructure” to launch. This would grant Launcher the flexibility to launch from practically anywhere, a holy grail of spaceflight innovation.

Up next: E-2 still has a few more tests ahead. The next test, where the engineers will aim to increase the engine’s efficiency, is scheduled for early May. The first full duration, three-minute fire is targeted for late this year.

Related Stories
BusinessPolicy

Commercial Space Federation Launches Supply Chain Council

What do penguins and US space industry suppliers have in common? It’s safer for both to travel in packs. 

BusinessStartupsVC/PE

Impulse Space Raises $300M Series C

Less than four years after its founding, the Series C brings Impulse’s total financing to $525M.

BusinessLaunch

iRocket Kicks Off a $400M SPAC Deal

If completed, iRocket wi the Nasdaq with an expected valuation of approximately $400M.

LaunchRockets

Northrop Grumman Invests $50M in Firefly’s Eclipse

Eclipse is the product of scaled-up tech from Firefly’s smaller launch vehicle—Alpha—and shared systems from Northrop’s flight proven Antares program.