Development of the Scorpius LOX/Kerosene Engine Family

Microcosm and Sierra Engineering have been developing a series of low-cost pressure fed LOX/kerosene engines to power the Scorpius^® family of launch vehicles. This paper focuses on the design, fabrication and testing of a 20K lbf O-F-O triplet injector with a flight-type ablative chamber. The test results indicated good performance and stability. The ablation rates were higher than desired. Minor design modifications and additional testing will complete the engine verification process.

Muss, J., Chakroborty, S., Leyva, I. A., “Development of the Scorpius LOX/Kerosene engine family,” JANNAF 2005-0356, 2nd Liquid Propulsion and 1st Spacecraft Propulsion Subcommittee Meeting, Monterey, California, December 5-8, 2005.