German launch startup Isar Aerospace has announced significant progress with the development of its Aquila rocket engine. The company has confirmed that flight versions of the engine are currently being manufactured.
Isar is developing Spectrum, a 28-metre tall two stage launch vehicle that is designed to carry up to 1,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. The first stage will be equipped with nine Aquila engines, and the second stage will feature one vacuum-optimized version of the engine.
On 26 October, the company announced that it had made significant progress with testing its engine at its Esrange test site in Sweden. According to Isar, an Aquila engine was fired for 260 seconds, which is longer than the engine will be fired during a flight. The company has also hot fired a single engine six times without any refurbishment between ignitions.
“We are in the final development stages of the Aquila engine, focusing on determining the exact operating windows, optimizing the procedures and sequences, and stress testing as much as possible before first flight,” said Ulrich Maurer, Isar’s director of Aquila engines. “Flight engines are currently in manufacturing.”
Following one more test campaign, Isar will then work towards acceptance testing of engines for the maiden flight of Spectrum, which will take place at Andøya Space in Norway.
