JUSTIN WASTNAGE / MOSCOW

EADS Space Transportation has signed a c1.5 billion ($1.69 billion) contract with Russia's Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (KBKhA) to carry out three years of research into a kerosene-fuelled propulsion system for reusable launch vehicles.

The EADS Germany subsidiary is focusing its Tehora programme on Jet-A/liquid-oxygen rocket engines to power the European Space Agency's next-generation launcher, following studies into the use of methane as a propellant.

EADS Space Transportation is to launch the Tehora 3 programme on the back of the findings of Tehora 2, which started in 1999. This established that high-thrust kerosene powerplants require less complex injection systems than the liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen engines used on Ariane launchers. "We would have liked to continue research into both kerosene and methane, but budgetary constraints combined with KBKhA's expertise in kerosene propulsion swayed our decision," says Axel Deich, director of the company's propulsion and equipment division.

The Tehora 3 project will be funded by German research agency DLR and around 50% of the work will be carried out in Russia, says Deich. KBKhA will build an 80mm (3.2in)-diameter test chamber for the kerosene staged-combustion engine, which will use a hot-gas cycle like that of a jet engine. Deich says the main advantage of kerosene over competing propellants is cost. But issues such as coking and sooting, which have an impact on the otherwise low operating and overhaul costs, are still to be addressed.

In the USA, Boeing Rocketdyne's RS-84 kerosene-fuelled rocket engine has passed its preliminary design review under NASA's Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) programme. The 1 million lb-thrust (4,500kN) engine is a candidate to power a next-generation reusable launch vehicle that would replace the Space Shuttle. Test firings of a near full-scale preburner generating 40,000lb thrust are due next month at NASA's Stennis Space Center, and the RS-84 prototype engine is due to begin full-scale test-firing by the end of 2007.

NASA has halted work on liquid-hydrogen-fuelled reusable engines under its restructured Space Launch Initiative, of which the NGLT programme is part. Under an 18-month, $21 million deal awarded earlier this year, Northrop Grumman is continuing development of the former TRW's 1 million lb-thrust class kerosene engine, the TR107.

Source: Flight International