Relativity's Aeon-R Engine Survives First Full Throttle thrust Chamber Test
After many months of rigorous testing at NASA Stennis’s engine testing facilities, Relativity Spaces new, high power methalox engine has completed its first full throttle test of the engine’s thrust chamber.
3 minute read•Updated 12:04 AM EDT, Sat March 30, 2024
Aeon-R
After many months of rigorous testing at NASA Stennis’s engine testing facilities, Relativity Spaces new, high power methalox engine has completed its first full throttle test of the engine’s thrust chamber. Powering Relativity’s fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle, Terran-R, Aeon-R will be using the newly popular methane fuel, instead of the traditional kerosene or hydrogen used by the majority of rockets today.
Previous test of Aeon-R at NASA Stennis
Methane: The Future of Rockets
Methane is the hot topic in the aerospace industry, with many companies switching to methane fuel for their vehicles, including SpaceX’s Starship, ULA’s Vulcan, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and Relativity’s Terran-1 and Terran-R rockets. Methane provides a mixture of high thrust and high efficiency when compared with conventional fuel types, and is significantly cheaper and easier to acquire for launch services.
Full Throttle Test
Tim Ellis, Cofounder and CEO of Relativity Space, posted on Twitter that the Aeon-R engine had completed a full throttle firing of its thrust chamber, registering a force of 258,000lbs, comparable to the thrust of SpaceX’s Merlin 1D engine. The thrust chamber test is a full test of a rocket engine with the nozzle extension removed. On a rocket engine, the engine bell provides an engine greater efficiency during flight, converting more of the engine's exhaust into usable thrust, but is not needed to fire the engine.
