- Moonspike became Orbex http://www.parabolicarc.com/2017/06/23/orbex-reveals-rocket-factory/
Quote from: savuporo on 06/24/2017 07:52 pm- Moonspike became Orbex http://www.parabolicarc.com/2017/06/23/orbex-reveals-rocket-factory/Hmmm... I wonder if they're still pursuing cheap turbopumps.
After 2 years of testing, the European rocket company PLD Space has concluded the first sets of testing of their liquid rocket engine.TEPREL Demo engine, was a calorimetric engine intended to demonstrate combustion stability as well as to acquire relevant information such as ignition and shut-down sequences, pressures and temperatures along the engine, thrust and propellant mass flow rates at different thrust profiles. Additionally, the engine served to test all associated hardware and software at PLD Space propulsion test facilities. The company has posted a new video in its Youtube channel, as a tribute of those two years of engine testing. The company shows in the video this engineering and testing development focused on the startup and shut-down of the engine, the combustion stability and increase of thrust. During two years of optimizing the injection system, the company has increased the thrust of the engine from the initial value of 25kN to the current thrust of 32 kN at sea level.TEPREL (Acronym for Spanish Launchers Propulsion Technology) testing program started in June 2015 and after dozens of tests at PLD Space´s facilities located at Teruel Airport, the company is now ready to face the next technical challenge, testing the regeneratively cooled engine called TEPREL-A.TEPREL-A is a KeroLOX engine that will work nearly 2 minutes at full power, producing 32 kN at Sea Level, enough thrust to launch ARION 1 suborbital launcher into space. PLD Space expect to perform this regeneratively cooled engine testing by next month. The new engine will help to close the design loop of the first flight qualification rocket engine that will boost ARION 1 test vehicle. This first test flight is currently planned for late 2018.
PARIS — As many as 50 small satellites awaiting launch this year will remain grounded because of a lack of suitable launch-service options, and many that find a launch will end up in less-than-ideal operating orbits, according to Britain’s Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd.But in what may be a confirmation of markets’ tendency to overreact, the Catapult’s survey found more than 50 rockets dedicated to small-satellite launches now under development
Four Japanese firms from different industries are planning to set up a company to develop next-generation rockets for launching small satellites.The use of small satellites for communications and observation purposes is spreading in the United States and other countries. Some start-up companies in Japan have launched efforts to develop rockets for launching small satellites at low costs.Industry sources say Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, Shimizu Corporation and the Development Bank of Japan, or DBJ, plan to launch a firm to develop next-generation mini rockets.Both Canon and IHI have been developing satellites. Shimizu is a major construction firm and the DBJ is a government-affiliated financial institution.The sources say the new company will aim to enter the microsatellite launching business, whose market is projected to grow globally.The 4 companies are reportedly hoping to gather their know-how in rocket development and put the new firm into operation soon.Japan's space industry is lagging behind that of the US and other countries.A law was enacted last November to encourage private companies to enter the industry.
The new company will be founded on Wednesday with capital of 200 million yen ($1.8 million). Canon Electronics will take a 70% stake. The three other parties will have stakes of 10%.The business is not expected to get underway until at least the end of fiscal 2017. When it does begin operating, it will try to meet some of the surging demand to carry small satellites into space with a small, low-cost rocket.The partners plan to develop the rocket using technology from the SS-520 minirocket owned by JAXA, Japan's space agency.
