An air-breathing rocket engine in certain embodiments comprises an outer shell and an interior portion situated entirely within the front end of the outer shell. The interior portion includes a funnel-shaped intake and an annular primary combustion chamber between the inner front wall of the shell and the outer surface of the funnel-shaped intake. The intake has a central aperture that is in fluid communication with the throat and exhaust areas within the outer shell. A second circumferential gap is formed between the outer surface of the front inner wall and the inner surface of the front end of the outer shell and is in fluid communication with the throat and exhaust areas within the outer shell. One or more injector ports and one or more ignition ports are situated at the front end of the second circumferential gap.

A rocket engine with porous structure is disclosed. The rocket engine can include an outer wall, a combustion chamber, a coolant distribution channel defined between the combustion chamber wall and the outer wall, and a manifold. The combustion chamber can have a combustion chamber wall, a first end, a second end opposite to the first end, and a nozzle section disposed at the second end. The manifold can be disposed at the first end of the combustion chamber and have an injector to direct a propellant into the combustion chamber and a coolant inlet to direct a coolant to flow through the coolant distribution channel. The combustion chamber wall can be manufactured through an additive manufacturing process and have a porous section to provide transpiration cooling to the combustion chamber from the coolant that flows through the coolant distribution channel.

A nozzle presents a longitudinal axis, includes both a combustion chamber made of metal material and presenting a downstream end, and a diverging portion made of composite material formed by a wall of conical shape extending between an upstream and a downstream end. The upstream end of the composite material diverging portion is connected to the downstream end of the combustion chamber. The nozzle further includes an annular mount made of metal material including a first portion secured to the combustion chamber and a second portion extending beyond the downstream end of the combustion chamber along the longitudinal axis. The upstream end of the composite material diverging portion is fastened to the second portion of the annular mount by a plurality of fastener members, each including a fastener bolt, each fastener bolt passing through the conically-shaped wall of the composite material diverging portion near the upstream end of the wall.

Disclosed herein are various technologies pertinent to rocket engines, including injector, thrust chamber, and electrical turbopump devices that may be combined to provide a more efficient rocket engine. The electrical turbopump impeller includes a coolant bypass port fluidically connected with a coolant passage that passes through the impeller central hub and allows some of the propellant that is acted on by the impeller to bypass the impeller outlet and instead be flowed into the electrical turbopump housing so that the diverted propellant may be used to cool the various components housed within the housing such as the electric motor bearings, stator, rotor, and electronics.

A rocket engine has: a combustion chamber having a chamber inlet for receiving an oxidizer and a chamber outlet for expelling combustion gases in an environment outside the combustion chamber; a manifold having a manifold inlet fluidly connectable to a source of the oxidizer and a manifold outlet; a catalyst having a catalyst inlet fluidly connected to the manifold outlet and a catalyst outlet; and an injector plate having a injector inlet fluidly connected to the catalyst outlet and an injector outlet fluidly connected to the chamber inlet.

A combustion chamber section for a combustion chamber for a rocket engine, the combustion chamber section including a combustion chamber body enclosing a combustion chamber volume and having coolant channels disposed therein, and at least one baffle integrally formed with the combustion chamber body and projecting from the combustion chamber body into the interior of the combustion chamber. The at least one baffle includes at least one coolant channel fluidly connected to at least one of the coolant channels in the combustion chamber body. Furthermore, an additive layer manufacturing method for manufacturing such a combustion chamber section is described.

An integrated propulsion system for hybrid rockets includes an oxidizer tank, a rocket engine, a pressurization device, a pressurization device and an oxidizer pipe and valve unit. The rocket engine is disposed within the oxidizer tank partially and located on a first side of the oxidizer tank. The pressurization device is disposed, at least in part, within the oxidizer tank, is located on a second side of the oxidizer tank opposite to the first side of the oxidizer tank, and is configured to regulate an overall pressure level within the oxidizer tank. The oxidizer pipe and valve unit is connected to the oxidizer tank and the rocket engine, and is configured to control feeding of an oxidizer from the oxidizer tank into the rocket engine.

Disclosed herein is a single piece, integrated, light weighted, cost-effective 3D printed engine for space vehicles. FIG. 5 illustrates an integrated engine that comprises a combustion chamber to burn the fuel, an injector plate (504) to inject the fuel to the combustion chamber, an igniter (502) to ignite the fuel mixture, a nozzle (506) to pass hot gas to produce thrust and cooling channels (508) for regenerative cooling, where all these components are fused to form a single piece integrated engine. The engine of the present invention eliminates the need of assembling the individual components. Further, the engine is additively manufactured with high grade aerospace materials. Thus, the cost and mass of the engine is reduced when compared to traditionally manufactured engines, which leads to frequent missions.

A rocket fueling system includes an insulated jacket configured to removably couple to at least a portion of a rocket and form an enclosed space between the insulated jacket and the at least the portion of the rocket. The rocket fueling system also includes a cryogen inlet in the insulated jacket. The cryogen inlet is configured to receive a cryogen into an interior chamber of the insulated jacket. The rocket fueling system further includes a cryogen outlet in the insulated jacket. The cryogen outlet is configured to provide the cryogen from the interior chamber in the insulated jacket to the at least the portion of the rocket in the enclosed space. The rocket fueling system still further includes a gas outlet in the insulated jacket configured to exhaust the cryogen from the enclosed space, and a flammable gas sensor configured to detect a flammable gas at the gas outlet.

A liquid propellant rocket engine includes a combustion chamber that has a throat and a nozzle aft of the throat. The nozzle has a first nozzle section adjacent the throat and a second nozzle section aft of the first nozzle section. The first nozzle section includes active cooling features and the second nozzle section excludes any active cooling features. The first nozzle section is operative via at least the active cooling features to form a condensate that passively cools the second nozzle section.