Spanish company Pangea Aerospace developed and tested the first aerospike engine in the world to run on liquid methane and oxygen. This video shows scenes of the engine being tested at the German aerospace center, DLR, test centre in Lampoldshausen Germany in 2021.  

Unlike almost all rocket engines in operation, aerospike engines don’t have bell-shaped nozzles but plugs to eject their exhaust. This allows the engine to be more efficient at different altitudes, offering up to 15% more efficiency – and in rocket launches efficiency is everything as you try to escape Earth’s gravity. Aerospike engines have stayed theoretical for decades. Although a few were built in the 1980’s, new 3D-printing techniques have made them more economically viable 

These scenes were taken from four test runs with the engine firing for around a minute during each test. Liquid methane and liquid oxygen – often abbreviated to methalox – is cooled down to around –170°C before being mixed and burnt in the engine, where the mixture then heats up to temperatures above 3000°C. To prevent the engine from melting, Pangea Aerospace’s design runs both the cryogenic methane and oxygen fluids around the engine to cool it. The test firing delivered up to 20 kilonewtons of thrust.

This engine development was supported in part by ESA’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme, and Pangea Aerospace is also working with ESA to identify how to design and build a very high thrust rocket engine for future launchers – offering over 2 meganewtons of thrust.