The first fully integrated E-2 engine roars to life for the first time at the historic @NASAStennis on November 16, 2023. This test proved out the engine bootstrap startup transient. The team will continue to work towards long duration testing at nominal parameters in the upcoming weeks.
E-2’s first 90-second test fire was a success! It performed at 55% power with a low conservative 1.6 mixture ratio as planned. The hardware appears in perfect condition ready for more tests. This is an exceptional result for a first test article (E-2 SN1). The test was also a key milestone for our US Space Force TACFI contract.We’ve wrapped up this test campaign and will be back in January with an updated injector featuring lower LOX passage pressure drop to allow us to increase the LOX mass flow and in turn reach full thrust and high performance O/F mixture ratio of 2.62.We thank our team and partners for making this possible - especially @NASAStennis and their team. We would also like to thank the @SpaceForceDoD for their TACFI contract support.
Nominal E-2 thrust and performance achieved. Have you ever seen a blue plume on a kerosene/lox rocket engine 💎💎💎? More to come including the full test video.
Was great to spend some time at NASA’s Stennis Space Center with @launcher (@vast) team yesterday as they tested the fully-integrated E-2 engine for a two-minute burn — blue flame achieved with kerosene!
Incredible and likely unprecedented liquid oxygen-kerosene rocket engine performance achievement by our team this week. Since reaching a blue plume with our 20x smaller E-1 combustion chamber sub-scale tests nearly 5 years ago, we have been dreaming and chasing the day we will achieve it in our full-scale, oxygen-rich closed cycle engine. Standby for video.
Preview: Short duration test of our E-2 22k lbf (10 tf) ORSC LOX/Kerosene liquid 🚀 engine. Nominal pressure (100 bar) and mixture ratio (2.7). Recorded this week at @NASAStennis
Reason why we have a blue plume and not RD-180 - they have throat film cooling given the high mix ratio and limited cooling ability of kerosene. E-2 uses both propellants for cooling which allows us to remove throat film cooling. The film cooling slightly reduces combustion efficiency by adding unburned kerosene which combust in the plume and not in the nozzle. RD-180 still beats E-2’s ISP due to its high combustion pressure of 260 bar vs 100 bar in E-2.
E-2 in slow motion— E-2 is a 22k lbf (10 tf) ORSC LOX/Kerosene liquid 🚀 engine. Recorded last week at @NASAStennis. Standby for the release of a nominal full duration test.
Who has ever seen a LOX/Kerosene liquid 🚀 engine with a blue plume 💎💎💎💎? Not only does it look spectacular, but it also serves as undeniable proof of the 99%+ combustion efficiency achieved in this test.Enjoy this 3-minute, 20-second test of E-2, a mostly 3D-printed 22k lbf (10 tf) ORSC LOX/Kerosene liquid rocket engine. Nominal pressure: 100 bar; mixture ratio: 2.7. Recorded today at @nasastennis, this test also secured the duration record for the test stand. E-2 is now available for sale to launch companies.
Quote Who has ever seen a LOX/Kerosene liquid 🚀 engine with a blue plume 💎💎💎💎? Not only does it look spectacular, but it also serves as undeniable proof of the 99%+ combustion efficiency achieved in this test.Enjoy this 3-minute, 20-second test of E-2, a mostly 3D-printed 22k lbf (10 tf) ORSC LOX/Kerosene liquid rocket engine. Nominal pressure: 100 bar; mixture ratio: 2.7. Recorded today at @nasastennis, this test also secured the duration record for the test stand. E-2 is now available for sale to launch companies.
