During early June, ASRI kicked off its first round of SAFFIRE liquid rocket engine testing at the Denel Overberg Test Range. The SAFFIRE engine is being developed to power the CLV small satellite launch vehicle, conceptualised by ASRI to provide South Africa and Africa at large with sovereign access to space.
The test programme successfully evaluated a wide variety of performance metrics associated with flight-weight engine hardware, and validated operations of ASRI's upgraded mobile engine test facility.
The programme included kerosene and liquid oxygen cold-flow tests, ignition tests, control software trials and engine hot-fire tests at different operating points, providing our engineering team with gigabytes of superb development data. One particular test even provided us with a friendly reminder that all rocket engines have their limits!
Enjoy the footage, and be sure to turn that volume up!
19 июн 2024