// PROPULSION SYSTEMS AND ENGINE TECHNOLOGY TERM
Staged Combustion Cycle
A highly efficient but complex rocket engine design where a portion of the propellant is first burned in a 'preburner' to power the engine's pumps. The hot exhaust from this preburner is then fed into the main combustion chamber to be fully burned, ensuring no propellant is wasted.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
The staged combustion cycle is a high-performance, closed-cycle bipropellant rocket engine configuration that achieves high specific impulse (Isp) by using a preburner to partially combust propellants. The resulting hot gas drives the engine's turbopumps, and this exhaust is then directed into the main combustion chamber for complete combustion, thereby eliminating the dump losses characteristic of open-cycle designs.
BACKGROUND
The staged combustion cycle is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine. In the staged combustion cycle, propellant flows through multiple combustion chambers, and is thus combusted in stages. The main advantage relative to other rocket engine power cycles is high fuel efficiency, measured through specific impulse, while its main disadvantage is engineering complexity.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- closed-cycle
- preburner cycle
- topping cycle
- FRSC
- ORSC
- full-flow staged combustion
- FFSC
USAGE NOTE
This cycle is used in high-performance liquid rocket engines, such as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) and SpaceX's Raptor, where maximum efficiency is critical.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to Staged Combustion Cycle.
Develops the Raptor engine, a reusable methalox engine that is the first operational full-flow staged combustion rocket engine. It powers the Starship launch vehicle.
Manufactures the BE-4 engine, which uses an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle. It is designed to power the Vulcan Centaur and New Glenn launch vehicles.
An L3Harris Technologies company that designed and manufactured the RS-25 engine (also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine), a highly efficient staged combustion engine now used for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS).
A Russian rocket engine manufacturer with a long history of developing powerful oxygen-rich staged combustion engines, including the RD-180 used on the Atlas V rocket and the RD-171/191 family.
Developing a novel engine for a fully reusable upper stage that utilizes a full-flow staged combustion cycle, where the oxygen-rich turbopump exhaust is directed outwards through the heat shield.
A state-owned developer of the Long March rocket family, which uses the YF-100 engine. The YF-100 is a high-pressure, oxygen-rich staged combustion engine fueled by kerosene.
India's national space agency, which has developed the SCE-200, a semi-cryogenic engine that operates on an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle, intended to power future launch vehicles.