The fifth Vinci® cryogenic rocket engine development prototype (M5) designed by Snecma, has successfully completed its ground firing tests.
The tests were carried out at the Lampoldshausen facility of German space agency DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt), on the P4.1 test rig, which duplicates the vacuum conditions of space.
The M5 test firings confirmed the engine’s maturity and endurance, as well as its expected performance using subsystem configurations very close to flight models.
The Vinci® is a advanced cryogenic rocket engine using liquid hydrogen and oxygen as fuel and is intended for the upper stages of the upcoming the Ariane 5 ME (Midlife Evolution) and Ariane 6 launchers.
The M5 underwent 16 test firings totaling 5,987 seconds, or six times its operating time during an Ariane mission, from Septemeber 2013 to August 2014. It features a new igniter configuration, which passed its tests with flying colors; some tests involved up to four consecutive firing sequences.
The Vinci® M5 engine is fitted with subsystems very close to flight configuration, most of them to the last development standard. The engine qualification is scheduled for early 2017.
The Vinci engines have now logged over 21,500 seconds of firing tests. The next step will be tests of the M6 and M7 development engines, targeting subsystem qualification. These tests will kick off in 2015 on the PF52 test rig at Snecma’s Vernon plant, and on the DLR’s P4.1 test rig in Lampoldshausen, respectively. The following year will see two series of engine qualification tests, conducted concurrently on these two rigs.
The engine has the unique capability to be restarted in flight, and develops three times more thrust than the HM7B engine now powering the upper stage of the current Ariane 5 ECA launcher.
The first flight of the modernised Ariane 5 ME is scheduled for mid-2018, and will become Europe’s next workhorse launcher, replacing Ariane 5 ECA and Ariane 5ES until the arrival of the next generation Ariane 6, which could make its first flight by 2021–22.
