Designed to produce 250 tons of thrust, the Typhoon rocket engine uses a full-flow staged combustion cycle.
A German company has completed a six-week test of its full-flow staged combustion rocket engine. Named Typhoon, the engine’s oxygen-rich preburner was tested at the German Aerospace Center Lampoldshausen site.
The Exploration Company’s engine component underwent 16 hot fire tests.The reusable engine has been in development since 2024 with co-financing from the French space agency CNES. Designed to produce 250 tons of thrust, the engine uses a full-flow staged combustion cycle. The Exploration Company revealed that a series of 16 hot-fire tests of the oxygen-rich preburner for the Typhoon engine were conducted.16 hot-fire tests across four configurations“Conducted at the German Aerospace Center Lampoldshausen site, the campaign included 16 hot-fire tests across four configurations. Tests covered a broad operating envelope. Early low-frequency instabilities were resolved, allowing for stable sequences of up to 85 seconds by the end of the campaign,” said The Exploration Company in a statement.The preburner powers a rocket engine’s turbopumps, which feed fuel and oxidiser into the combustion chamber at high pressure. Once the engine had overcome low-frequency instabilities, it achieved stable combustion test firings of up to 85 seconds, a significant improvement over its previous test campaign earlier this year.“The Exploration Company has reached a further important milestone. We are happy to contribute our expertise to the development of future space propulsion systems. We appreciate their trust and the productive cooperation,” said DLR Institute of Space Propulsion in a post on a social media platform.“The test campaign took place at the P8 research and development test bench at our hashtag#DLR test site in Lampoldshausen.”Thrust capacityWith its thrust capacity, the Typhoon rocket is comparable to SpaceX Raptor family, which is a reusable methane-oxygen staged-combustion engine that powers the Starship system and has twice the trust of Falcon 9 engine. Starship is powered by six engines, three Raptor engines and three Raptor Vaccum engines, designed to fly in vaccum.At this point, the Typhoon engine does not have a confirmed application, as it is far too powerful for any of the company’s current in-space logistics projects. The Exploration Company partnered with an industrial prime to submit a proposal for the European Space Agency’s European Launcher Challenge. While unconfirmed, the company’s contribution to the bid likely included the Typhoon engine, reported European Spaceflight.Almost a month ago, The Exploration Company launched its Mission Possible capsule from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The flight marked TEC’s second spacecraft to reach orbit in under four years. During the mission, the spacecraft powered all 25 payloads on and off, maintained stable communications in orbit, performed attitude control maneuvers, and oriented its heatshield correctly for re-entry, validating every major system before the final descent. From an orbital altitude of 550 km, the capsule re-entered successfully in a controlled manner, with communication established post re-entry.
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