Virgin Galactic complete hot-fire rocket tests
- By Jack Preston -
- Jul 17, 2012
Virgin Galactic have successfully completed an examination of RocketMotorTwo, with the hybrid rocket engine undergoing a series of hot-fire tests.
The first hot-fire tests were conducted under the control of SpaceShipTwo's proprietary Rocket Motor Controller, with the following system components being evaluated; pressurization, valve/Injector, fuel formulation and geometry, nozzle, structure and performance.
All of the test objectives were met, as the performance target of a 55 second hot fire was realised. The duration of the burn was chosen to allow sufficient time for an internal geometry examination.
The tests come in the wake of Richard Branson unveiling Galactic’s LauncherOne, a revolutionary satellite launch vehicle which aims to change the face of satellite research. If you’d like to find out more about this, or any other news from the world’s first commercial spaceline, visit Virgin Galactic.
By Jack Preston. Content Executive. Tweets at @JackPressedOn
