Posted on 09/01/2021 11:04:32 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg, or RFA, has concluded another test of their RFA One rocket. In the test, the company performed a destructive cryogenic pressure test of their first stage prototype. The company has shown a video in which the prototype stage broke apart after it was fueled with cryogenic nitrogen to test the quality of the welds and determine the pressure at which the structure fails.
The company previously switched from the gas generator cycle to a staged combustion design for their engine.
The RFA One is a three-stage rocket currently in development. The current design calls for a 30 meters tall and 2-meter diameter rocket.
The first stage will be powered by nine of their currently unnamed engines. The engine itself runs a staged combustion cycle, which makes RFA the first company in Europe to develop such an engine to flight readiness. The goal is to provide about 100 kN of liftoff thrust, with early flights operating with lower thrust levels.
The engine will use rocket-grade kerosene known as Rocket Propellant 1, or RP-1, oxidized by liquid oxygen. The ignition will be started by the hypergolic substances of triethylaluminium and triethylborane, or TEA-TAB. Both these propellants and the ignition substance are common with those used by SpaceX on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
The goal is to reuse the first stage and recover it on orbital flights, but the company has not yet disclosed how they plan to reuse and recover it. In the past, the first stages flown by SpaceX were recovered using propulsion for a landing burn, while other companies, such as Rocket Lab, plan to use parachutes to slow the stage down and catch it with a helicopter.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasaspaceflight.com ...
“I think that’s why the V2 scared the top US military and science heads so much- it only made sense if you were going to top it with a nuke.”
A nuke or some other WMD - biological, chemical or radiological. The V3 was a rocket-assisted cannon that was never completed, and it was rumored that some kind of radiological ‘dirty bomb’ was going to be the V4.
Peenemunde has be closed for some time. Then there’s the little matter of launching a large ballistic rocket from within German borders. That might make the neighbors a bit nervous. I guess they could ask the French for their launch facilities in Guyana?
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