First ignition for Europe's most powerful rocket engine, the Vulcain 2.1 - Main stage engine for Ariane 6 on the test stand at DLR Lampoldshausen

DLR German Aerospace Center
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First ignition for Europe's most powerful rocket engine, the Vulcain 2.1 - Main stage engine for Ariane 6 on the test stand at DLR Lampoldshausen

The new Vulcain 2.1 engine, which is set to carry the new European launcher Ariane 6 into space in 2020, is intended to achieve greater efficiency at lower costs. However, before such a launch can be successfully carried out, the development engines must prove that they can cope with the enormous 130-ton thrust, temperatures of approximately 3000 degrees Celsius in the combustion chamber, the high rotational speeds of the turbo pumps and the pressure in the propellant lines. On 22 January 2018, engineers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) carried out a first successful test of the engine, developed by the ArianeGroup, on test stand P5 at Lampoldshausen. "We can evaluate the functional capability of the engine for the main stage only by constantly carrying out tests, in which we gradually take steps towards its ultimate use in space," explains Stefan Schlechtriem, Director of the DLR Institute of Space Propulsion. A total of 12 firings are planned for the first test campaign at DLR.


Full article with images: http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10081/151_read-25584/year-all/#/gallery/29560

DLR Space research: http://www.dlr.de/Space

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