Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines has signed an agreement with Buckinghamshire-based Nammo Westcott Ltd to supply a rocket-plume heat exchanger for the UK’s new National Space Propulsion Test Facility (NSPTF).
Nammo has recently been awarded a multi-million-pound contract by the European Space Agency to construct and operate the NSPTF at Westcott Venture Park in Buckinghamshire, providing world-leading facilities that will enable rocket engines up to 1.5kN to be tested in high-altitude vacuum conditions.
The Applied Technologies division of Reaction Engines (
www.reactionengines.co.uk), recently formed to develop commercial opportunities from the group’s patented heat-exchanger technologies, is leading the design and manufacture of the rocket-plume heat exchanger.
This is a key element of the test facility; it will enable rocket exhausts to be reduced from temperatures over 2,000°C to just 50°C.
Steve Gill, Reaction Engines chief commercial officer, said: “Reaction Engines is delighted to supply Nammo with a world-class heat exchanger that will cool extreme temperatures in a very compact envelope, and which will be one of the first large-scale commercial applications of the knowledge and technology we have developed.
“This project shows that Reaction Engines has a world-leading thermal management capability.”