The Institute of Space Propulsion in

Lampoldshausen Lampoldshausen is a small village on the southern edge of the Harthausen Forest near Möckmühl in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Aerospace Village Within the global Aerospace community Lampoldshausen is known as Aerospace Village by the Institute ...

is one of the eight research centers of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Approximately 220 people work there in the fields of research and tests of

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordanc ...

s. The main purpose of the facility is the operation of test stands for space propulsion on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) and in cooperation with the European space industry.

Test stands

The facility has a surface area of approximately 35 ha, on which are seven test stands.

Test stand P1

At the altitude test stand P1 are tested small engines with a thrust up to 600 N. In particular, thrusters for Reaction Control Systems (RCS) and Apogee Kick Motors (AKM) fall in this category.

Test stand P2

The test stand P2 is used for testing

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 ...

engines with a thrust up to 100 kN under ground conditions.

Test stand P3

The test stand P3 is a component test stand for

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

propellants. It was set up mainly for the development and tests of

combustion chamber A combustion chamber is part of an internal combustion engine in which the fuel/air mix is burned. For steam engines, the term has also been used for an extension of the firebox which is used to allow a more complete combustion process. Interna ...

s, in particular those of the Vulcain 1 and Vinci engines for the European launcher

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...

Test stand P4 (P4.1 / P4.2)

The vacuum test stand P4 is composed of two test stands P4.1 and P4.2. Tests with the

Aestus Aestus is a hypergolic liquid rocket engine used on an upper stage of Ariane 5 family rockets for the orbital insertion. It features unique design of 132 coaxial injection elements causing swirl mixing of the MMH propellants with nitrogen tetro ...

engine can be carried out at the P4.2 test stand, whereas the test stand P4.1 has been used for the Vinci upper stage engine.

Test stand P5

The test stand P5 has been used for the development and the qualification of the Vulcain and Vulcain 2 engines. Today, it is mainly used to test engines in the frame of the ESA ARTA program.

Test stand P6

The test stand P6 is an altitude test stand for

cold gas thruster A cold gas thruster (or a cold gas propulsion system) is a type of rocket engine which uses the expansion of a (typically inert) pressurized gas to generate thrust. As opposed to traditional rocket engines, a cold gas thruster does not house any c ...

Test stand P8

In the frame of a German-French cooperation arose the idea to build a common ''European Research and Technology test stand'' P8. The partners

SNECMA Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (''Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation'') or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It ...

Astrium Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 18 ...

CNES The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is und ...

and DLR made a start on this project in 1992. The main purpose of this test stand is the research about high pressure combustion of hydrogen and oxygen.

References

External links

Institute of Space Propulsion

DLR site Lampoldshausen
{{authority control Space programme of Germany Space technology research institutes Research institutes in Germany