Successful final presentation of SF 1000 engine

During the presentation of the flight version of the SF 1000 engine, which took place on April 1st, 2022, it worked for over 43 seconds!

The total impulse of the engine was 1.15 [MNs], which is an excellent result, better than the initial assumptions (1.0 [MNs]). After measuring the mass of the combustion chamber after the test and nitrous oxide left in the tank, the calculated specific impulse of the engine was equal to 2100 [Ns/kg] (about 214 s). In total, we used over half a ton of propellants. After post-test inspection of the combustion chamber, it turned out that it is the best engine we made so far, and the burnout of solid hybrid fuel reached 90%. The engine will generate an additional 50 [kNs] of total impulse during the space flight, consuming some of the remaining oxidizer (gas phase of N2O) in the tank and the rest of the solid fuel. We have thus confirmed that this target propulsion system has a total impulse of 1.2 [MNs].

The Thrust Vector Control (TVC) actuator also proved to operate perfectly. To the best of our knowledge, this type of mechanism was used with a hybrid rocket propulsion system for the first time. The test video shows how the exhaust vanes come off close to the end of the engine operation when the TVC system will be turned off. Two identical combustion chambers are already prepared for the flight campaign of PERUN rocket prototype, the integration of which is underway.

The “Suborbital Inexpensive Rocket Project” under activity 1.1 “R & D projects of enterprises” of the Intelligent Development Operational Program 2014-2020 is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.