Using the Fastrac engine as the propulsion system for a future launch vehicle is one means to achieve NASA's goal of making space launch affordable. The Fastrac provides 60,000 pounds of thrust to boost payloads weighing up to 500 pounds. That price is expected to drop even more within a few years as design enhancements are discovered and incorporated through industry participation and flight experience. Fastrac incorporates drastic reductions in the cost of turbomachinery, which uses pumps to increase propellant pressure and a turbine to provide energy to turn the pump. Significant involvement by small business has aided in broadening the competition and producing lower cost hardware.
Marshall employees assemble Fastrac engine by mating the injector with the nozzle.
For example, Barber-Nichols, Inc. of Arvada, Colo., worked alongside Marshall engineers to design and manufacture the turbopump. The Colorado-based company is experienced in building turbomachinery for the automotive industry and chemical plants, and not traditionally associated with the aerospace industry. The company helped design a turbopump for the Fastrac engine that can be built easily using commercial manufacturing techniques. The Fastrac engine is 7 feet long and 4 feet wide, and weighs almost 2,000 pounds. The engine is fueled by a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene, the same propellants used for the largest rocket engine ever built - the Saturn F1.