Aerojet's Successful Main Engine Injector Tests Provide Milestone for NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle

Aerojet, a GenCorp GY company, under contract to Lockheed Martin, successfully completed development injector testing for the 7500-pound thrust Orion main engine (OME) for NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle. The OME is a pressure-fed, regeneratively cooled, storable bi-propellant engine that is a technically advanced, increased performance version of Aerojet's flight-proven 6000-pound thrust space shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System Engine (OMS-E). The test series verified the engine's combustion stability and additionally provided chamber wall heat flux and injector performance data to anchor mathematical models. All testing was performed in heavy-weight combustion chambers specifically designed for these tasks. This early demonstration of the engine's combustion stability at expected Orion operating conditions was conducted to retire risk to the Orion vehicle.