![]() The E-2 will power Launcher Light, the small launch vehicle the company is developing for a first flight in 2024. That outperforms other American engines, including SpaceX’s Merlin, and is behind only the Russian RD-180. The company says the E-2 has a specific impulse at sea level of 288 seconds, and 326 seconds in vacuum. Launcher has emphasized the high performance of the E-2 compared to other engines that use kerosene and liquid oxygen. “We’re also excited that they see the value of the staged combustion engine and its high performance.” “What we’re doing now is taking it to the next level, which is a long-duration test and the turbopump,” he said of the new award. “We’re excited that they were pleased with our performance and that they wanted to sponsor us for another one.” “That was a really big boost for us in validation and funding,” Max Haot, founder and chief executive of Launcher, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters here. Launcher won another SBIR award from the Air Force in 2019, valued at $1.5 million, for E-2 engine development. The engine features a combustion chamber 3D-printed using a copper alloy and runs on liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellants. The company has been testing the engine at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, including a test in April where the engine generated its full thrust of about 22,000 pounds-force. That includes full-duration testing of the engine’s turbopump and long-duration testing of the combustion chamber. Launcher announced May 25 it received the SBIR Phase 2B tactical funding increase, or TACFI, award from the Space Force earlier this month to accelerate work on the company’s E-2 engine. Space Force that will assist the company’s development of a high-performance rocket engine for its small launch vehicle. Launcher won a $1.7 million contract from the U.S.
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