Firefly

Small satellite launch vehicles developer Firefly Space Systems has trialled its first rocket engine, Firefly Rocket Engine Research 1 (FRE-R1).

FRE-R1 is a propulsion engine designed to power both stages of the company’s Firefly Alpha small-sat launcher.

During the trial, the engine start-up, shutdown, and steady state combustion were successfully demonstrated.

Firefly co-founder and CEO Dr Thomas Markusic said: "The successful testing of our first engine represents a quantum step in the technical maturation of our company.

"We have demonstrated that our core engine design can reliably start, stop and operate at a steady state without combustion instabilities."

"Our core engine design can reliably start, stop and operate at a steady state without combustion instabilities."

The company is currently working on a combustor design for both stages of the launcher.

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Alpha’s upper-stage will use an engine (FRE-1) with a single combustor to produce 7,000lbf thrust, while the first stage engine (FRE-2) will feature 12 combustors arranged in an annular aerospike configuration to generate 125,000lbf thrust.

The FRE-R1 uses LOx/RP-1 propellants and the basic combustor uses methane or RP-1 fuels.

The company said that the future tests will focus on performance tuning and longer duration mission duty cycle runs.

Markusic said: "In only 15 months, we have built our Texas team, constructed state-of-the-art engineering and test facilities, designed a complete rocket (Alpha) to PDR level, and built and tested key vehicle technologies, such as the FRE-R1 engine."

The FRE-2 aerospike engine’s first hot-fire tests are planned to be performed in early 2016.

Image: Firefly FRE-R1 engine test on Test Stand 1. Photo: courtesy of Firefly Space Systems.