Gold Coast company in successful 45-second rocket engine test fire [VIDEO]

Gilmour Space has successfully completed a “hot fire” 45-second test of its upper-stage hybrid rocket engine.

Gilmour made the announcement on Thursday morning, calling it the longest and most efficient test fire for the company so far. 

“It’s a key demonstration of our ability to produce repeatable, stable, and high-performance combustion over a long duration burn; and a significant achievement in hybrid rocket development,” said CEO and co-founder Adam Gilmour in a statement.

“This engine will have the capability to power the upper stage of our Eris orbital launch vehicle, and deliver our customer payloads to required orbits,” he explained. “Our next test will be a full duration mission duty cycle firing of this engine.”

Gilmour said the year had been one of significant disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the bushfires, but it remained on track to complete further significant tests in 2020, such as “a series of low-altitude flight tests of their guidance, navigation and control systems, a thrust vector control system test, and a more powerful static fire of their first-stage rocket engine.”

The venture-funded company, which employs 50 at its Gold Coast rocket facility, aims to provide commercial launches for small satellites by 2022.

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