XCOR
Aerospace
and
United
Launch
Alliance
Announce
Successful
Hydrogen
Piston
Pump
Tests
June
8
XCOR
Aerospace,
the
developer
of
the
Lynx,
a
manned
suborbital
spacecraft
and
related
technologies,
and
United
Launch
Alliance
(ULA),
the
primary
launch
services
provider
to
the
US
Government,
announced
the
first
successful
demonstration
of
XCOR's
long
life,
high
performance
piston
pump
technology
with
liquid
hydrogen.
XCOR
has
been
developing
piston
pumps
for
space
applications
for
more
than
eight
years
as
an
alternative
to
turbopumps,
demonstrating
longer
life
and
lower
cost.
XCOR's
piston
pumps
have
other
advantages
including
the
ability
to
operate
over
a
wide
range
of
speeds
and
inlet
conditions.
After
XCOR
performed
risk
reduction
and
demonstration
projects
in
2009
that
validated
high
performance
cryogenic
(liquid
oxygen
and
liquid
nitrogen)
piston
pump
operations,
ULA
asked
XCOR
if
the
pump
technology
could
be
extended
to
liquid
hydrogen.
Implementing
rapid
prototyping
techniques
and
working
on a
fixed
price
basis,
XCOR
developed
a
single
piston
work-horse
test
article
and
test
bench,
and
then
successfully
tested
the
pump
with
hydrogen
in
less
than
four
months.
Based
on
this
success,
ULA
and
XCOR
have
begun
the
next
phase
of
the
project
to
further
mature
the
technology.
During
the
tests,
the
XCOR
team
of
Chief
Engineer
Dan
DeLong,
Chief
Test
Engineer
Doug
Jones,
Senior
Engineer
Mike
Valant
and
Systems
Engineer
Mark
Street,
demonstrated
successive
rounds
of
pumping
liquid
hydrogen
at
conditions
relevant
to a
flight
type
multi-cylinder
pump.
Possible
applications
include
pump-fed
liquid
hydrogen
rocket
engines
for
upper
stages,
on-orbit
propellant
transfer
operations,
and
other
cryogenic
fluid
management
applications.
A
unique
capability
demonstrated
during
the
tests
was
the
ability
to
pump
through
cavitation
events
when
liquid
hydrogen
returned
to
partial
gaseous
form,
a
sign
of
robustness
of
the
design
to
handle
anomalous
events
that
would
cause
other
high
performance
pump
schemes
to
cease
operations.
ULA's
Vice
President
of
Business
Development
and
Advanced
Programs,
Dr.
George
Sowers
noted,
"XCOR
has
demonstrated
the
beginnings
of
an
important
technology
development
path
that
has
the
promise
to
significantly
improve
the
competitiveness
of
future
ULA
launch
vehicles."
Frank
Zegler,
Senior
Staff
Engineer
in
ULA's
Advanced
Programs
group,
commented,
"XCOR
is
doing
things
with
piston
pumps
that
no
one
else
has
done."
"ULA
has
taken
a
very
innovative
and
commercially
focused
approach
for
future
technology
insertion
into
their
long
range
product
planning
roadmap,
and
XCOR
is
very
pleased
to
support
the
ULA
team
by
further
enhancing
and
extending
our
technology
to
their
unique
needs
for
lower
cost
launch
vehicles,
new
on-orbit
applications
and
capabilities,
and
future
deep
space
exploration
systems,"
said
XCOR
President
and
Founder
Jeff
Greason.
XCOR
Chief
Operating
Officer
Andrew
Nelson
said,
"ULA's
use
of
our
high
performance,
light
weight
cryogenic
piston
pump
technology
is
very
exciting
and
this
effort
is a
demonstration
of
how
a
large
and
established
aerospace
company
can
effectively
work
with
smaller,
innovative
New
Space
companies
to
improve
the
prime
contractor's
product
lines
while
simultaneously
helping
to
restore
the
second
and
third
tier
aerospace
supplier
base
our
country
has
lost
over
the
last
twenty
years.
We
are
very
pleased
and
fortunate
to
have
such
a
good
long
term
partner
in
ULA."
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