Source: Vector

Microsatellite launch company Vector has received a U.S. patent for its enhanced liquid oxygen-propylene rocket engine. Vector is the first and only launch provider to utilize propylene fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) in an operational launch system. This engine patent validates the innovative nature of Vector's approach and further protects the company's fundamental technology as it prepares to deliver customer payloads to orbit.

Vector's decision to pursue liquid oxygen and propylene as an alternative propellant technology is a strategic one. Propylene has unique properties when used as rocket fuel, including its density when chilled to near-cryogenic temperatures and energetic capabilities compared to that of other hydrocarbon fuels like RP-1 or methane.

These properties enable Vector to deliver higher engine performance with smaller fuel tanks and avoid the turbo-pumps traditionally used for other hydrocarbon fuels. By utilizing oxygen and propylene as propellants as well as propriety engine technology, Vector is effectively reducing the complexity and cost of its rockets, which are smaller, more reliable and unique to the launch vehicle market.

Development of Vector's enhanced liquid oxygen-propylene rocket engine first began at Garvey Spacecraft Corporation, with early research sponsored by NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Vector's acquisition of Garvey Spacecraft in 2016, and the subsequent development of the Vector-R rocket, is a continuation of that technological lineage.

Poised to reshape the multi-billion-dollar launch market by dramatically increasing access and speed to orbit, Vector has borrowed best practices from the automotive industry to revolutionize the rocket production process. In the last two and a half years Vector has built its Vector-R launch vehicle and opened production facilities in Tucson to immediately ramp up rocket manufacturing and fly satellites into orbit.

To learn more about the Vector-R launch vehicle, please visit https://vector-launch.com/vector-r/.