XCOR Aerospace and ULA Announce Successful Hydrogen Piston Pump Tests

[Kryten]

Liquid hydrogen with LOX?  I can understand the use of kerosene and LOX..... Jeff is really pushing the propulsion envelope for commercial spaceflight; makes me nervous.  LH2 with LOX require special handling
and care. Look how long it took the Soviets/Russians to use the propellant on Briz upperstages, etc.

Briz is UDMH/N2O4, and this isn't the first time commercial outfits have looked into hydrolox. Blue Origin have a tested engine (BE-3) with about forty times the thrust of this thing, and four times the ultimate target for this program.

[TrevorMonty]

More progress:

“The test marks the first time liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen have been supplied to a rocket engine with a piston pump,” says Jeff Greason, XCOR’s chief executive. “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. We are happy to be making solid progress on the engines. This will also bring us to a new phase in our plans for orbital flight.”

Full text at http://www.xcor.com/blog/lh2progress/

I can think of one potential use for this engine (2.5klb), the small landing engines on Masten/ULA Xeus lander. Four pairs ( redundancy) of these, one each corner would land 20t(3.5t moon weight) on moon.

[mheney]

More progress:

“The test marks the first time liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen have been supplied to a rocket engine with a piston pump,” says Jeff Greason, XCOR’s chief executive. “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. We are happy to be making solid progress on the engines. This will also bring us to a new phase in our plans for orbital flight.”

Full text at http://www.xcor.com/blog/lh2progress/

I can think of one potential use for this engine (2.5klb), the small landing engines on Masten/ULA Xeus lander. Four pairs ( redundancy) of these, one each corner would land 20t(3.5t moon weight) on moon.

That would require keeping liquid hydrogen actually liquid for 3+ days - which I believe is a bit beyond the state of the art for a rocket stage.