The Ariane 5 after: a contract to develop the High Thrust Engine demonstrator

The European Space Agency, which prepares the launcher elements of the future planned by 2025 to replace the current Ariane 5 family, enjoyed the 2009 Paris Air Show to sign the contract to develop a demonstrator next generation engine.

The contract was signed between ESA and the Joint Propulsion Team, a European consortium Avio and Snecma Astrium (Snecma Group is the former name of a built in SAFRAN Group).

The first studies of this demonstrator, the High Thrust Engine began in 2007 and aim to clear land in order to identify the technology jumps that will need to take to design the main propulsion engine of future launchers. This demonstration of 140 tons of thrust at an engine intended to represent consumable largest increase, of about 200 tons, used for the main floors of next generation. For comparison, the Vulcain engine of Ariane 5 has a thrust of 114 tonnes and 134 tonnes for the Vulcain 2 engine of Ariane 5 ECA.

Source: Techno-science.net