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⟵ Back to the 2023 Year in Review Landing Page
Propulsion and Energy

New engine development on the rise, with liquid methane taking center stage

By Brandie L. Rhodes|December 2023

The Liquid Propulsion Technical Committee works to advance reaction propulsion engines employing liquid or gaseous propellants.

In July, an Ariane 5 lifted off from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana for the 117th and final time. The expendable design was the guarantor of Europe’s independent access to space for almost three decades. In preparation for the inaugural flight of an Ariane 6, scheduled for 2024, ArianeGroup fired the Vulcain 2.1 engine at the Kourou launch complex. Also in September, engineers from the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, the European Space Agency and ArianeGroup completed hot fire testing of the Ariane upper stage, which includes the Vinci engine and an auxiliary power unit, at the DLR site in Lampoldshausen, Germany.

SpaceX’s second fully stacked Starship-Super Heavy took to the skies in November. The flight ended early, but SpaceX achieved several objectives, including ignition of all engines and clearing the launch pad, plus booster and upper stage separation via a new hot-staging technique, in which the upper stage engines ignited while still connected to the booster.The Starship upper stage is powered by three gimballing, sea-level optimized engines and three fixed-vacuum-optimized full-flow staged-combustion-cycle engines, each powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane.

In March, NASA selected Blue Origin’s National Team to provide the second human landing system for the Artemis program. The lander, which will carry astronauts for the Artemis V mission scheduled for 2029, will be powered by the BE-7, a deep throttling liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine. Starting with Artemis V, NASA’s Space Launch System rockets will be powered by redesigned              Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines. The updated engines will have simplified component designs that take advantage of 3D printing and other manufacturing advances. In June, a series of  certifications tests were completed at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, in which an RS-25 was powered for eight minutes to represent how long the engines must operate during flight.

In June, United Launch Alliance test fired a Vulcan Centaur booster with two Blue Origin BE-4 engines. Vulcan’s inaugural flight, scheduled for December, will also be the first flight of these liquid oxygen and liquid methane engines.

In July, Sierra Space of Colorado won an U.S. Air Force contract of $22.6 million to continue the maturation of its VR35K-A advanced upper stage engine. The VR35K-A is a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen staged combustion cycle engine that produces 140 kilonewtons of thrust. The engine has a single-shaft turbo-pump assembly for simplified operation and mechanically coupled mixture ratio control.

In February, Dynetics of Alabama completed a full-scale combustion chamber test of its 35-kilonewton dual expander main engine at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama and vacuum testing of its dual mode reaction control system thrusters. Dynetics further matured the technologies this year under a NASA Human Landing Systems Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 Appendix N contract.

German startup and launch service provider Rocket Factory Augsburg completed a full-duration hot-fire test of its Helix engine in June. This was the first time that a privately developed staged combustion upper stage had been successfully hot fired in Europe. The Exploration Co., another German space startup, tested its reusable and throttleable orbital bio-methane and oxygen full-scale thrust chamber on the P8 test bench in Lampoldshausen in July.

Liquid oxygen/liquid methane engine development also progressed in Italy and France. ArianeGroup completed the first test of the Prometheus engine in June, with a 12-second burn while integrated to the Themis first-stage demonstrator. Avio of Italy completed the first test of the M10/DM2 engine in August at the new Space Propulsion Test Facility in Sardinia. Also, in March, the Italian government awarded a 103.7-million-euro contract to Avio, initiating the development of an additional engine called HTE.

Contributors: Nathan Andrews, Colin Cowles, Christoph Kirchberger, Anne Lekeux, Scott Miller, Francesco Nasuti, Ken Philippart, Chip Sauer and Steve Shark

2023 Year in Review

Aerospace Design and Structures

A 3D computational fluid dynamics simulation shows airflow around an aerodynamic shape, with colorful gradient layers and grid lines illustrating pressure and velocity distribution.

Researchers extend the boundaries for integration and application of multidisciplinary design optimization

Two black modern drones with twin tails and propellers in flight against a white background.

Testing a variety of adaptive structures

A spacecraft featuring large solar panels and a cargo bay or docking mechanism orbits above the Earth, with the planet's surface and cloud formations visible below.

Designing the world’s largest wind turbine

Aerospace Outreach

Aerial view of nasa langley research center with people forming the number

A nod to tragic and triumphant events

A vibrant image of the Carina Nebula, showcasing bright stars and colorful gas clouds in space, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The scene features shades of blue, orange, and pink.

A year of seeing the unseen

A black and dark green World War II-era bomber aircraft with Canadian flags on it is parked on a tarmac, surrounded by trees and patches of grass under a clear sky.

Recognizing NASA’s 60th anniversary, World War I centennial

Aerospace Sciences

Close-up image of an asteroid, showcasing its rocky and uneven surface against a black background.

Fusion of multiple sensors and advanced algorithms facilitate new autonomous operation capabilities

A close-up view of a propeller blade covered with thick, sharp ice crystals in a wind tunnel testing environment.

Machine learning, flight experiments highlight progress in aerospace environments

Two people stand near a large white high-altitude balloon being inflated on a concrete surface, with a building labeled

Forecasting space weather to protect travelers

Aircraft Technology, Integration and Operations

A sequence of paratroopers are seen descending from a military aircraft, with parachutes deployed against a blue sky.

Improving accuracy of military airdrops, even without GPS

Solar Impulse 2

The changing face of flight testing

A person is paragliding with a pink and white parachute against a clear blue sky.

U.S. Army tests gravity airdrop, high-altitude parachutes and powered paragliders

Engineering and Technology Management

Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine for ULA’s Vulcan

Profits dip in aerospace, defense sectors

Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo

Accelerating change on systems engineering tenets

Atmospheric picture of space

A century ago, aviation became an industry

Information Systems

A man in a uniform is seated in the cockpit of an aircraft, looking at the control panels. The cockpit is filled with various screens and instruments.

Enabling advances in aircraft operations

View from under an airplane wing showing a spinning propeller and a scenic aerial view of patchwork fields and lakes.

Push for shared standards on military platforms

A humanoid robot with a blue illuminated chest panel stands in a high-tech laboratory surrounded by equipment.

Attention on drone safety and data collection

Integration

A rocket booster is igniting on a test stand, producing a large plume of smoke and flames against a clear sky with scattered clouds. The landscape in the background includes mountains.

Full-scale SLS booster test, OSIRIS-REx nail-biter are among exploration successes

A helicopter flying in the air.

Unmanned aircraft systems make research and business advances

A lunar lander is positioned on the moon's surface under a dark sky. The ISRO logo is visible in the upper right corner.

U.S. and Indian lunar missions headline the year’s events

Program Committees

A large cylindrical object is positioned in the center of an industrial facility with yellow overhead cranes and metallic structures.

Space Launch System keeps pace

rotating detonating engine

New and existing systems show progress

Tests at the Lockheed Martin Low Speed Wind Tunnel in Ohio

Going green moves to higher gear

Propulsion and Energy

A rocket engine test stand with a lit engine emitting flames is outdoors, surrounded by trees and a clear sky.

Encouraging tests of hybrids hold hope of safer, reliable access to space

Three vertical panels showing temperature, density, and pressure distributions from an anode to a cathode. Temperature ranges from 300K to 2500K, density from 0 to 2.5 kg/m³, and pressure from 0 to 4 atm.

Advances in simulations and experimentation for clean and high-speed combustion systems

A fire in the sky.

Hope for again sending humans to space from U.S. soil

Space and Missiles

A spacecraft with solar panels emits blue thrusters as it flies near a cratered surface, possibly the moon.

Gateway leads the era of deep space infrastructure development

A rocket descends gently toward the ground with flames emitting from its engines against a backdrop of a cloudy sky and barren landscape.

Rocket manufacturers continue to bet big on reusability

Rocket launching from a launch pad at dusk, with a bright flame and smoke trail, set against an orange sky.

World news puts focus on missile defense

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New engine development on the rise, with liquid methane taking center stage