🚀 MEANWHILE, OVER AT ROCKET LAB...

Yesterday, I gave a brief overview of SpaceX's Raptor engines used on their Super Heavy Booster and Starship. These are truly incredible and the most powerful rocket engines ever made. See post here: 

https://lnkd.in/efXtQNzq

However, there is plenty of other innovation going on in the rocket departments around the world... 

Rocket Lab's Rutherford engine used on its Electron rocket - and its upcoming Archimedes engine for its new Neutron rocket- are also incredible feats of engineering.

👉 LIGHTER: The Rutherford is a smaller, lighter engine that is optimal as a satellite launch vehicle, so it serves a different purpose than Starship.

👉 ELECTRIC: It uses lithium-ion batteries and electric motors to directly drive the fuel pumps of the engine (ie. they dont have turbines). By not having the gas-driven turbopumps, this simpler design has fewer moving parts, and makes it much lighter and more reliable than its gas-driven turbine cousins. It still preburns some of the fuel and oxidizer before the main combustion.

👉 It uses Liquid Oxygen (oxidizer) and RP-1 (refined kerosene) for its high performance, good density, and storability.

👉 3D PRINTING: The engine is also extensively manufactured using 3D printing - they can reprint a new core engine in 24hours! This allows for rapid prototyping, design flexibility, cheaper production, and manufacturing scalability.

🚀 🚀 The RocketLab RESULT: the Rutherford is a smaller, cheaper, lighter engine that is optimal for a satellite launch vehicle engine. 

RocketLab's Electron rocket uses 9 Rutherford engines (first stage) and 1 vacuum-optimized Rutherford (second stage). This gives it a lift-off thrust of 190KN and a peak thrust of 224KN (compare this to ONE SpaceX Raptor rocket engine which has 2.53MN alone!)

📅 COMING SOON.. RocketLab are also developing the Archimedes engine, intended for Rocket Lab's upcoming Neutron rocket, which bridges the gap in thrust between smaller satellite rockets such as the Electron and heavier rockets like the Starship (Super Heavy Booster). The Archimedes will be a liquid oxygen / methane fuelled engine (like the SpaceX Raptor), so will be a cleaner engine.

The Neutron will target medium-size payloads for a mix of satellite constellations, cargo missions to the ISS, and potentially interplanetary missions.