Sanctions once morest Russia left the USA without rocket engines for the first and second stages of heavy launch vehicles. Future rocket engines of companies promise to become an alternative to them. Blue Origin and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Today appeared Another candidate for the production of rocket engines for American heavy rockets is the young company Ursa Major Technologies, created in 2015 by Elon Musk, a native of the famous SpaceX.
Rocket engine Arroway. Image Source: Ursa Major Technologies
Ursa Major has already developed and fire tested two liquid-propellant engines for light rockets, and has also launched their mass production. These are the Hadley engine with a thrust of 2.2 tf and the Ripley engine with a thrust of 22.7 tf. The company has produced and tested over 50 rocket engines and will deliver 24 of them to customers before the end of the year. For example, the client of the company is a startup Phantom Space, which creates a light rocket. For such companies that have no time to develop their own engines, Ursa Major will become a reliable supplier.
The new engine for heavy rockets, which together can replace the Russian RD-180/181 engines, is the Arroway liquid-propellant rocket engine with a thrust of 90 tf. It is inferior in terms of thrust to Russian engines, respectively, by four and two times, but compares favorably with methane instead of kerosene, which makes it cleaner during operation and better for reuse.
Fire testing of the Arroway engine is scheduled for 2023. Commercial deliveries of engines will begin in 2025. You can order immediately.
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