Launcher’s 3D-printed rocket engine achieves full thrust at NASA space center

The E-2 engine will power the Launcher Light, scheduled for launch in 2024.

Launcher, a Hawthorne, Calif., developer of rockets and launch vehicles that deliver small satellites to orbit, has successfully demonstrated the nominal thrust, pressure, and oxidizer/fuel mixture ratio of its E-2 3D-printed rocket engine. The combustion chamber of the engine, tested April 21 at NASA Stennis Space Center, was built on an AMCM M4K 3D printer. A Velo3D Sapphire printer produced the co-axial injector.

The closed-cycle, liquid-oxygen-cooled E-2 is being developed for the Launcher Light, a small vehicle scheduled to launch in 2024. A single engine will deliver the rocket to low-Earth orbit along with a 150-kg payload.

The engine was 3D-printed as a single piece from an industrial-grade copper-chromium-zirconium alloy. The material was selected to reduce costs and avoid the supply chain constraints that can arise with an aerospace-grade copper alloy, which typically is used to print combustion chambers.

Click here to watch test video.

The E-2 thrust chamber assembly on its test stand at NASA Stennis Space Center. During the test, it developed 10 metric tons of thrust and 100 bar of combustion pressure. John Kraus Photography for Launcher