Vulcain (rocket engine)

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The Vulcain engine in a museum.

The Vulcain 2 engine.

Vulcain is a european cryogenic first stage rocket engine for the Ariane 5.

1 History
2 Overview
3 Contractors
4 See also
- 4.1 Comparable engines
5 References and notes
6 External links

[edit] History

The development of Vulcain, assured by a European collaboration, began in 1988 with the Ariane 5 rocket program. ^[1] It first flew in 1996 powering the ill-fated flight 501 and had its first successful flight in 1997 (flight 502). In 2002 the upgraded Vulcain 2 with 20% more thrust^[2] first flew, although a problem with the engine turned the flight into a failure. ^[3] The first successful flight of a Vulcain 2 occurred in 2005 on flight 521.

[edit] Overview

Test firing of the Vulcain 2 engine in may 2004.

The Vulcain engines are gas generator cryogenic rocket engines fed with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. They power the first stage of the Ariane 5 launcher, the EPC (Étage Principal Cryotechnique, main cryogenic stage) and provide 8% of the total liftoff thrust^[4] (the rest being provided by the two solid rocket boosters). 3 m tall and 1.76 m in diameter, the engine weights 1686 kg and provides 137 t of thrust in its latest version ^[5]. The italian-built oxygen turbopump rotates at 13600 rpm with a power of 3 MW while the hydrogen turbopump rotates at 34000 rpm with 12 MW of power. The total mass flow rate is 235 kg/s, of which 41.2 kg/s are of hydrogen.

[edit] Contractors

The main contractor for the Vulcain engines is Snecma Moteurs (France), which also provides the liquid hydrogen turbopump. The liquid oxygen turbopump is responsibility of Avio (Italy), the gas turbines that power the turbopumps and the nozzle are developed by Volvo (Sweden). ^[4]