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SpaceDev Awarded Hybrid Rocket Motor Contract
Poway CA (SPX) Nov 18, 2005 SpaceDev has been awarded a $2.7 million contract by the Air Force to begin work on a large hybrid rocket motor. SpaceDev is to design, develop and test a small common booster capable of producing about 100,000 pounds of thrust, almost nine times that of the SpaceDev rocket motor technology used in Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize last year. Test firings of the prototype rocket motor are to begin next year. Under the contract, SpaceDev will be paid on a cost plus fixed fee basis related to the project. SpaceDev will own the technology that it develops, although the Air Force will retain certain licensing rights related to the technology. SpaceDev anticipates that the technology will validate ground test configuration of critical elements of the hybrid motor, such as the injectors, igniters, the motor grain and insulation. The overall goal is to demonstrate successful ignition and operation of a booster stage hybrid motor that can produce a reliable and reproducible thrust profile, with high performance. "We believe that this contract will enable us to improve in a cost-effective way on the technology we developed for the SpaceShipOne project," said SpaceDev founding chairman and chief executive, Jim Benson. "We also believe that this technology will be another significant step toward developing our own reliable, low cost, safe cargo and crew vehicles, like our proposed SpaceDev Dream Chaser orbital human space transportation vehicle. We believe the technology can also be adapted for use alone as a sounding rocket or target in our proposed SpaceDev Streaker small launch vehicle family." Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDev SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
Successful First Test For Vega's Zefiro 9 Engine
Paris, France(ESA) Dec 28, 2005Flames, smoke and a deafening noise accompanied the first firing test of Vega's Zefiro 9 third-stage solid rocket motor. A first examination of the data indicates that everything went well at the test carried out yesterday at Salto de Quirra in southeast Sardinia. |
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