RS-88
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The RS-88 (Rocket System-88) is a
liquid-fueled rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid rocket propellant, liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or Solid-propellant rocket , solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because th ...
engine designed and built in the United States by
Rocketdyne Rocketdyne is an American rocket engine design and production company headquartered in Canoga Park, California, Canoga Park, in the western San Fernando Valley of suburban Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, in southern California. Rocketdyne ...
(later
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) was an American company that designed and produced rocket engines that use liquid rocket propellants, liquid propellants. It was a division of Pratt & Whitney, a fully owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corpo ...
and then
Aerojet Rocketdyne Aerojet Rocketdyne is a subsidiary of American Arms industry, defense company L3Harris that manufactures rocket, Hypersonic flight, hypersonic, and electric propulsive systems for space, defense, civil and commercial applications. Aerojet traces ...
). Originally developed for NASA's Bantam System Technology program in 1997, the RS-88 burned ethanol fuel with liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer. It offered of thrust at sea level. A
hypergolic A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other. The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. The ...
derivative of the RS-88, fueled by monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, was chosen as the launch escape motor for the
Boeing Starliner The Boeing Starliner (or CST-100) is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Developed by Boeing under NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), it consists o ...
capsule.


Origins and Testing

The RS-88 stemmed from NASA's Bantam System Technology Project, part of the Low-Cost Technologies effort of the larger Advanced Space Transportation Program. This project aimed to research and demonstrate technologies for a new, affordable launch system. While the program envisioned a technology demonstration flight in late 1999, it ultimately focused on engine development. NASA tested the RS-88 in a series of 14 hot-fire tests, resulting in 55 seconds of successful engine operation in November and December 2003. In 2003, Lockheed Martin selected the RS-88 for their pad abort demonstration vehicle. NASA successfully tested the engine in a series of hot-fire tests, demonstrating its reliability.


Starliner Launch Escape System

A hypergolic derivative of the RS-88, fueled by
monomethylhydrazine Monomethylhydrazine (MMH) is a highly toxic, volatile hydrazine derivative with the chemical formula . It is used as a rocket propellant in bipropellant rocket engines because it is hypergolic with various oxidizers such as nitrogen tetroxide () ...
(MMH) and
nitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russian rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...
, was chosen as the launch escape motor for the
Boeing Starliner The Boeing Starliner (or CST-100) is a spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Developed by Boeing under NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), it consists o ...
capsule. This variant, called the Launch Abort Engine (LAE), provides of thrust. Four LAE engines are used in Starliner's abort system to propel the capsule away from the launch vehicle in case of an emergency.


See also

* NASA Advanced Space Transportation Program * Merlin (rocket engine)


References


External links


Marshall SFC Star June 11, 1997.

RS-88 PAD Testing at NASA MSFC May 2005, AIAA
{{Rocket engines Rocket engines using alcohol propellant Rocketdyne engines Rocket engines of the United States Rocket engines using the pressure-fed cycle Rocket engines using hypergolic propellant