The XR-5M15 prototype engine is run at XCOR's test site on the Mojave Spaceport Commercial space flight start-up XCOR Aerospace ha...
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| The XR-5M15 prototype engine is run at XCOR's test site on the Mojave Spaceport |
Commercial space flight start-up XCOR Aerospace has completed the latest test series of the XR-5H25 rocket engine it is developing under contract with United Launch Alliance (ULA).
The low-cost upper-stage engine is being developed as a potential successor to the current 50+ year old Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 upper stage engine used by ULA's Delta and Atlas launch vehicles.
XCOR successfully performed the hot fire testing of the XR-5H25 engine's regeneratively cooled thrust chamber, with both liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants supplied in pump-fed mode, using XCOR's proprietary piston pump technology.
The subscale 2500 lbf 5H25 demonstration engine is intended as a testbed, to develop a flight-ready cryogenic upper-stage engine in the 25,000 lbf thrust class.
Upcoming test series will fully integrate the nozzle with the engine and piston pumps. Fully closed cycle testing will follow soon afterwards and will complete the sub-scale demonstration engine program.
"This test marks the first time liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen have been supplied to a rocket engine with a piston pump," says XCOR Chief Executive Officer Jeff Greason. "It is also the first time an American LH2 engine of this size has successfully fired liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen together in pump-fed mode.
XCOR is based in Mojave, California. It is currently starting to create a new Research and Development Center in Midland, Texas, and an operational and manufacturing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
XCOR® builds reusable rocket-powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and rocket piston pumps. It is building Lynx®, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered vehicle that takes-off and lands horizontally.
The Lynx-family of vehicles serves three primary missions depending on their specific type including: research & scientific missions, private spaceflight, and micro satellite launch (only on Lynx Mark III).
Lynx production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be robust, multi-mission (research / scientific or private spaceflight) commercial vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude up to four times per day.
Lynx vehicles will be available to customers in the free world on a wet lease basis to start their own manned space flight progam.
