Stoke House shared beautiful new photographs from a latest flight take a look at of the corporate’s Hopper reusable rocket prototype.
The flight take a look at, known as Hopper2, included a vertical takeoff and vertical touchdown demonstration, throughout which the reusable second-stage rocket efficiently lifted about 30 ft (9 meters) off the bottom after which safely touched down in its focused touchdown zone after 15 seconds of flight.
The latest photographs that Stoke House shared on X (previously Twitter) present the spacecraft on the launch pad on the firm’s take a look at website in Moses Lake, Washington, together with the brilliant blaze ignited by the rocket’s hydrogen/oxygen engine throughout liftoff.
Associated: Stoke House will get nearer to 100% reusable rocket with profitable ‘Hopper’ take a look at flight (video)
The take a look at, carried out on Sept. 17, was meant to show a number of of Hopper’s techniques and design components, together with its novel hydrogen/oxygen engine, coolant-based warmth defend and a propulsion system that maneuvers the rocket by throttling its completely different engines.
Whereas the spacecraft did not straight expertise the warmth from hypersonic reentry to Earth’s ambiance throughout its take a look at flight, it has efficiently operated at 100% of the anticipated warmth load in a simulated setting, bringing the corporate one step nearer in direction of creating absolutely reusable rockets.
“This take a look at was the final take a look at in our Hopper expertise demonstration program. We efficiently accomplished the entire deliberate aims,” the corporate mentioned in a press release saying the profitable take a look at launch. “We have additionally confirmed that our novel method to sturdy and quickly reusable area autos is technically sound, and we have obtained an unbelievable quantity of knowledge that can allow us to confidently evolve the automobile design from a expertise demonstrator to a dependable reusable area automobile.”
Following the profitable take a look at of the second stage rocket, Stoke House will now shift its focus to creating a reusable first stage as a way to attain the corporate’s purpose of constructing a 100% reusable rocket with a turnaround time of simply 24 hours.
