Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will build and operate their own test stand at the DLR site in Lampoldshausen, Germany, to test the Helix engine, starting in mid-2023, to bring the European Union’s first staged-combustion engine to serial production maturity.
According to this agreement, RFA will lease and use the P2.4 test site. While DLR provides the basic infrastructure and the test operation takes place within the framework of the site regulation, RFA brings their own test stand and supporting infrastructure.
Overall, investments in the single-digit million range are planned. This gives RFA the opportunity to test and operate their Helix engine in Germany for the first time. Until now, test stands in Lampoldshausen were only used by DLR, ESA and ArianeGroup. RFA is thus one of the first New Space companies to be given this opportunity. So far, testing of the Helix engine has only been carried out in Esrange, Sweden, at the Swedish Space Cooperation (SSC). Operations at this site will continue.
The opportunity to test in Germany simplifies logistics as well as bureaucracy, as approval procedures are known and export and import efforts are eliminated and also deepens cooperation between DLR and RFA and enables synergies and an exchange of experience that benefits both sides.
In mid-2022, RFA fired the Helix engine for the first time for a total duration of 74 seconds. A short, initial test of four seconds was followed by two long-term tests of 30 and 40 seconds. The same Helix engine was ignited and shut down three times without the need to replace any components. This clears the way for the Integrated System Test (IST), in which a complete upper stage tank with a Helix engine is tested as a closed system for the duration of its flight.
“Less than a week before the ESA Ministerial Council, this collaboration is a clear RFA location commitment to Germany and sends a strong signal to policy makers and the industry,” said Jörn Spurmann, Chief Commercial Officer at RFA. “The setup created with DLR is commercially very competitive on a worldwide scale and the right way to ensure the competitiveness of the German space industry in Europe and the world. We are very proud to be able to test our Helix staged combustion engine – the first in the European Union – at DLR in Lampoldshausen and are honored by the trust placed in us as a New Space company.”
“Start-ups are becoming increasingly important players in space as well. That’s why we are delighted with the trust that Rocket Factory Augsburg has placed in us as a New Space company. We also see this cooperation as an acknowledgement of the capabilities of the existing test infrastructure and as an investment in the future,” said Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of the DLR Executive Board, at the signing of the contract. “By validating promising advanced engine concepts, we are jointly laying the foundations of Europe’s commercial and cost-effective access to space.“