POLARIS receives Bundeswehr Study Contract for Linear Aerospike Rocket Engine Design and Flight-Testing
25.04.2023
POLARIS is pleased to announce that BAAINBw (Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support) has awarded POLARIS a contract to study the potential of a linear aerospike (LAS) rocket engine as propulsion element in a spaceplane demonstrator. As part of the contract, an LAS rocket engine will be ignited and tested in flight for the first time.
LAS form a novel class of rocket engines that enable major efficiency increases compared to conventional rocket engines. Depending on the mission scenario, this allows for higher payload mass, reduced vehicle take-off mass, and increased performance in terms of vehicle flight Mach number, flight altitude and flight range.
LAS rocket engines were supposed to be used as the main propulsion system for the planned Space Shuttle successor X-33/VentureStar and were ground-tested by NASA in the 1990s. NASA had also installed and flown a LAS cold-flow-demonstrator on the back of a SR-71 Blackbird. However, LAS rocket engines have so far never been operated in flight.
XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike Testing in the 1990s (NASA)
Linear Aerospike Cold-Flow Demonstrator installed on the Back of an SR-71 Blackbird (NASA, 1998)