Bipropellant Engines & Thrusters
Northrop Grumman continues to develop new bipropellant engines and thrusters in response to customer needs. Northrop Grumman has a long heritage of design, manufacture, integration and testing of bipropellant systems for satellites and spacecraft. Recent development activities have focused on Reaction Control Systems (RCS) engine alternatives for NASA's Space Exploration Systems. Northrop Grumman's current product line of bipropellant rockets includes:
- TR-308 Liquid Apogee Engine, which placed the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory spacecraft into its final orbit. The Liquid Apogee Engine (LAE) is the world's highest performing apogee engine.
- TR-312 Liquid Apogee Engines (TR-312-100MN and TR-312-100YN) which have completed DVT testing for commerical geostationary comsat applications.
- TR-500 Secondary Combustion Augmented Thruster (SCAT) Bi-Modal Thruster, flight-proven on the National Reconnaissance Office's Geosynchronous Lightweight Technology Experiment (GeoLITE) program.
- TR-711 Gel Boost Engine, which powered the world's first flight of a tactical missile utilizing gelled propellants and achieved a 700:1 Thurst-to-Weight Ratio.
- LOX/LH2 and LOX/Ethanol RCS engines successfully test fired in 1000 lbf and 870 lbf configurations, respectively.
- NASA RCE contract for a 100 lbf class LOX/Methane started in early 2006, and test activities have already commenced.