Italian rocket builder Avio has announced the first successful test firing of its new bipropellant rocket engine, designed for a range of in-orbit logistics applications.
Avio announced that it had begun the development of its Multi-Purpose Green Engine (MPGE) in March 2023, when it received a €55 million PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) grant from the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The engine runs on hydrogen peroxide and kerosene.
In a 24th February update, Avio announced that it had completed the first ignition tests of the MPGE on a purpose-built test bench. According to the company, the engine performed as expected and achieved combustion efficiency that exceeded expectations.
In order to comply with its PNRR contract, Avio is required to complete the development of its MPGE engine within the first half of 2026. When the contract was awarded in 2023, the company announced that the first version of the engine would be completed by the end of 2024. With the first test firings now complete, the company appears to be advancing according to plan.
In its original 2023 announcement, Avio stated that the engine would be used aboard a yet-to-be-introduced Vega orbital stage and the Space Rider reusable spacecraft, developed by Avio in partnership with Thales Alenia Space under a European Space Agency contract, among other applications. In its most recent update, the company stated that it would be used for “both launch systems and orbital and suborbital space applications.”
The MPGE project is not the only PNRR-funded initiative Avio is working on. In March 2023, the company secured two additional PNRR contracts worth a total of €337.5 million. The first supports the development of the MR60 rocket engine, a larger version of Avio’s MR10 upper-stage engine. The second funds the creation of a two-stage rocket demonstrator that will incorporate both the MR10 and MR60 engines. As with the MPGE contract, Avio must complete the development of both projects by 2026.
