Tweet
Another change Dream Chaser over the last couple of years has been to the engines; they've been working on replacing the hybrid engines in the back to a Vortex-flow liquid rocket engine originally designed by ORBITEC.
ORBITEC was bought out up by Sierra Nevada Corporation in order to get the Vortex engine, a compact space garden technology called VEGGIE (under test on ISS), and several other goodies.
In the Vortex engine the thrust chamber can be made of aluminum because the cryogenic propellants are introduced from the chambers perimeter, protecting the Chamber from the combustion, which occurs in the center of the swirling vortex. No pipe dream, this engine is been flight tested in a subscale version.
Correction: first flight to ISS 2020 for the Commercial Cargo 2 program, and work continues on a crew version.
ORBITEC was bought out up by Sierra Nevada Corporation in order to get the Vortex engine, a compact space garden technology called VEGGIE (under test on ISS), and several other goodies.
In the Vortex engine the thrust chamber can be made of aluminum because the cryogenic propellants are introduced from the chambers perimeter, protecting the Chamber from the combustion, which occurs in the center of the swirling vortex. No pipe dream, this engine is been flight tested in a subscale version.
Correction: first flight to ISS 2020 for the Commercial Cargo 2 program, and work continues on a crew version.
Comment