November 2022 marked a big milestone for our biggest rocket project STAHR. After months of preparation the propulsion and test bench team was finally able to test our hybrid rocket engine at M11, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. - Institute of Space Propulsion, Lampoldshausen.
During the two weeks we stayed in Lampoldshausen we conducted five hot fire tests testing different fuel mixtures and burn times. The video you can see here shows our 4th test, in which we burned a mixture of 10% polyethylene and 90% paraffin for 10 seconds.
The propulsion and test bench teams' job is to develop, build and test the hybrid rocket engine for STAHR. For this testing of the engine is inevitable, so we build a test bench at the HGD (Lehrstuhl für Hochdruck-Gasdynamik) in Aachen.
In order to continuously use our test bench in Aachen for subscale tests we were able to use HyEnD's infrastructure in Lampoldshausen for which we are incredibly grateful. Thank you Hybrid Engine Development - HyEnD e.V.!
The Space Team Aachen Hybrid Rocket, also called 'STAHR', is set to reach an apogee of above 10 km. It is being designed and launched as part of the STERN (STudentische Experimental RaketeN) program of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), whose aim is to support student teams in the development of suborbital rockets. STAHR is set to launch in 2024 from Esrange, Sweden.