Kestrel (rocket engine)

The rocket engine is Kestrel (English for the American Kestrels, kestrels and various other small species of falcon ), a project funded LOX/RP-1 pressure liquid rocket engine. The Kestrel engine was developed by the U.S. company SpaceX for use in the upper stage of the rocket Falcon 1.

Description of the engine

The engine Kestrel using the same geometry as the injection space X Merlin, however, it has in contrast to that main engine without the turbo pump. The fuel is funded solely by the tank pressure.

The combustion chamber, and the narrowest cross section of the nozzle are cooled by ablation while the actual nozzle is made of a high strength alloy and niobium is radiatively cooled. In comparison with carbon- fiber reinforced carbon, the metal to a higher resistance to cracking. According to SpaceX deform small impacts ( space debris, staging ) the material only, but this does not greatly affect the engine performance.

The efficiency of the applied pressure helium gas is significantly increased by the use of a heat exchanger made ​​of titanium. This is located on the border between ablative material and the niobium alloy of the nozzle.

Thrust vector control ( pitch and yaw ) is achieved by electro- mechanical actuators to the upper part of the engine. Roles ( and position control during ballistic phase ) is provided by helium cold gas thrusters.

In order to guarantee the Wiederzündbarkeit of the engine is used to ignite a TEA- TEB system. By Wiederzündbarkeit a greater flexibility in mission planning as well as the height and inclination of the target orbit can be achieved.

Kestrel 2

The Kestrel 2 is an improved version of the original Kestrel engine. The amendments relate to, inter alia, a reduction of the manufacturing tolerances, a higher specific impulse (ISP ), and a reduced net mass.

Data and key performance indicators

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