X-33 aerospike engines pass first twin-firing test
Posted: Fri, Feb 9, 2001, 11:21 AM ET (1621 GMT)
Two engines that will be used by NASA's X-33 reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator successfully completed their first test firing this week. The two XRS-2200 aerospike engines were fired for 1.1 seconds Tuesday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The ignition, or "burp", test was the first time two of the engines were fired together, after fourteen tests of a single aerospike engine wrapped up last year. Additional tandem tests of the two engines are planned in the coming months, with the length of the tests gradually extended to the durations required for a test flight of the X-33. The engines will then be installed on the X-33 for a series of surborbital test flights from California to Utah and Montana; those flights, originally scheduled for 1999, are now tentatively planned for 2002.
Two engines that will be used by NASA's X-33 reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator successfully completed their first test firing this week. The two XRS-2200 aerospike engines were fired for 1.1 seconds Tuesday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The ignition, or "burp", test was the first time two of the engines were fired together, after fourteen tests of a single aerospike engine wrapped up last year. Additional tandem tests of the two engines are planned in the coming months, with the length of the tests gradually extended to the durations required for a test flight of the X-33. The engines will then be installed on the X-33 for a series of surborbital test flights from California to Utah and Montana; those flights, originally scheduled for 1999, are now tentatively planned for 2002.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Apex becomes billion-dollar company with $200 million Series D round
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:09 AM ET (0809 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Monday, September 15
Elon Musk's Starlink reports service outage, thousands of users affected
Reuters — 1:23 am ET (0523 GMT) What does the loss of U.S. Space Command mean to Colorado Springs?
Denver Post — 1:21 am ET (0521 GMT) SpaceX Launches Northrop Grumman Cargo Ship To ISS
Aviation Week — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT) SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sunday
WESH-TV Orlando — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT) Apollo 13 made Jim Lovell a legend generations after the space race
The Hill — 1:09 am ET (0509 GMT) |
