The N₂ORTH propulsion system was successfully qualified in a hot fire test for a propellant throughput of more than 100 kg on August 25th. This marks an important milestone for the project, as HyEnD now has a flight-worthy propulsion system for the launch.

The fluid system of the ground support system (GSE) was used in order to fill the oxidizer tank with nitrous oxide and helium. The GSE includes two intermediate tanks for storage of the required amount of nitrous oxide for the filling process as well as a remote filling arm with a quick disconnect coupling.

The test setup includes the valves of the rocket as well as additional valves that are controlled using the test bench. An overview of the setup can be found below:

During the test, the rocket’s oxidizer tank was operated in a blow-down configuration together with the fluid system and engine of the rocket. The hot fire of the engine included the main operation phase of the engine and also the gas blow down after the depletion of liquid oxidizer, resulting in an overall hot fire duration of more than 50s.

In the upcoming weeks, the team will prepare another test with increased propellant mass in order to unlock the full potential of N2ORTH.