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New Rocket Engine Successfully Tested

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the flatulence-you-can-get-behind dept.

inetsee writes "XCOR Aerospace announced that their new methane-oxygen rocket engine has been tested successfully. This is reported to be the first successful test of an engine using the combination of methane and oxygen as fuel. The fuel has higher specific impulse than kerosene and oxygen, but until now has been thought to have too much 'technology risk'."

2 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Really, this is sweet. by Short+Circuit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The fuel has higher specific impulse than kerosene and oxygen, but until now has been thought to have too much 'technology risk'. Really, this is sweet. Not necessarily the rocket technology itself, but the fact that the X-Prize has accomplished what it was meant to do: Foster distributed research in space technology.

    Having one organization, with one budget (NASA) works fine when you've got a big enough budget. However, politics and manpower constraints limit the number of avenues you can explore. Like with computers, having a monolithic space technology architecture can lead to a single point of failure.

    What if a component is outlawed, or becomes extraordinarily expensive to produce? You end up with mountains of unusable applied technology.

    This test demonstrates that the practical science behind space flight is getting diversified, and that can only be a good thing for ensuring the future of space flight.
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  2. Re:Little bit disingenuous by GooberToo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For comparison, the kerosine F-1 engines on the Saturn V produced 1.5 million lbf compared to the 7,500 lbf targetted by this engine

    That's misleading. "This engine" is strictly a prototype so they can develop a much larger version. Comparing a production engine with an early, heavy in development prototype simply does not make sense. From the article, "The 7,500 lbf engine is the first of its kind...", and, "Currently, the engine is a workhorse prototype...". I don't see what their target thurst is, but one can assume it's much larger than 7,500lbf.