Flight Testing of a Prototype LOX/propylene Upper Stage Engine 1

The paper discusses the development and testing of a 2000 N thrust liquid oxygen/propylene rocket engine designed to power the upper stage of a Nanosat Launch Vehicle (NLV). The preliminary design is intended for space operations with an expansion ratio of 70. The targeted combustion eciency is 95% and nozzle eciency is 98%, corresponding to a specic impulse of 347 s. Propellants are introduced and mixed in the combustion chamber utilizing an unlike doublet injector element. In addition, lm cooling is provided in order to extend the life of the ablative chamber. Ignition is accomplished with a single igniter located in the center of the face of the injector. Consistent with the employed incremental approach, these requirements are relaxed for

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