Propulsion
“It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” Robert H. Goddard — father of the liquid-fueled rocket
To land a rocket, our flight engines have to maintain smooth, stable combustion across a deep throttle range. That requirement drives everything we do, starting at the injector face. We're developing a pintle injector and a continuously variable area injector that adjusts its flow area during flight to hold injection performance as thrust changes.
RUDy is our injector testbed, allowing us to quickly and safely iterate and test injector designs. This data will inform the design of ICICLE: our next-generation LOX/kerosene flight engine built to fly and land Icarus.
Team interests
- Injector, igniter, combustion chamber, and nozzle design
- Fluid and thermal analysis
- Precision manufacturing
- Hot-fire testing and data analysis
Responsible engineers
Projects
Operational
RUDy
Engine testbed proving our pintle injector and continuously variable area injector, one hot fire at a time.
In development
ICICLE
Our next-generation engine — the flight powerplant that will fly and land Icarus.