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Type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes

The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes. It belongs to the class of altitude compensating nozzle engines. Aerospike engines were proposed for many single stage to orbit (SSTO) designs. They were a contender for the Space Shuttle main engine. However, as of 2023 no such engine was in commercial production, although some large scale aerospikes were in testing phases. The term aerospike was originally used for a truncated plug nozzle with a rough conical taper and some gas injection, forming an "air spike" to help make up for the absence of the plug tail. However, a full length plug nozzle may also be called an aerospike.

The purpose of any engine bell is to direct the exhaust of a rocket engine in one direction, generating thrust in the opposite direction. The exhaust, a high temperature mix of gases, has an effectively random momentum distribution (i. e., the exhaust pushes in any direction it can). If the exhaust is allowed to escape in this form, only a small part of the flow will be moving in the correct direction and thus contribute to forward thrust. The bell redirects exhaust moving in the wrong direction so that it generates thrust in the correct direction. Ambient air pressure also imparts a small pressure against the exhaust, helping to keep it moving in the "right" direction as it exits the engine. As the vehicle travels upward through the atmosphere, ambient air pressure is reduced. This causes the thrust generating exhaust to begin to expand outside the edge of the bell. Since this exhaust begins traveling in the "wrong" direction (i. e., outward from the main exhaust plume), the efficiency of the engine is reduced as the rocket travels because this escaping exhaust is no longer contributing to the thrust of the engine. An aerospike rocket engine seeks to eliminate this loss of efficiency.

Several versions of the design exist, differentiated by their shapes. In the toroidal aerospike the spike is bowl shaped with the exhaust exiting in a ring around the outer rim. In theory this requires an infinitely long spike for best efficiency, but by blowing a small amount of gas out of the center of a shorter truncated spike (like base bleed in an artillery shell), something similar can be achieved. In the linear aerospike the spike consists of a tapered wedge shaped plate, with exhaust exiting on either side at the "thick" end. This design has the advantage of being stackable, allowing several smaller engines to be placed in a row to make one larger engine while augmenting steering performance with the use of individual engine throttle control.

Rocketdyne conducted a lengthy series of tests in the 1960s on various designs. Later models of these engines were based on their highly reliable J 2 engine machinery and provided the same sort of thrust levels as the conventional engines they were based on; 200,000 lbf (890 kN) in the J 2T 200k, and 250,000 lbf (1.1 MN) in the J 2T 250k (the T refers to the toroidal combustion chamber). Thirty years later their work was revived for use in NASA's X 33 project. In this case the slightly upgraded J 2S engine machinery was used with a linear spike, creating the XRS 2200. After more development and considerable testing, this project was cancelled when the X 33's composite fuel tanks repeatedly failed. Three XRS 2200 engines were built during the X 33 program and underwent testing at NASA's Stennis Space Center. The single engine tests were a success, but the program was halted before the testing for the two engine setup could be completed. The XRS 2200 produces thrust with an Isp of 339 seconds at sea level, and thrust with an Isp of 436.5 seconds in a vacuum. The RS 2200 Linear Aerospike Engine was derived from the XRS 2200. The RS 2200 was to power the VentureStar single stage to orbit vehicle. In the latest design, seven RS 2200s producing each would boost the VentureStar into low Earth orbit. The development on the RS 2200 was formally halted in early 2001 when the X 33 program did not receive Space Launch Initiative funding. Lockheed Martin chose to not continue the VentureStar program without any funding support from NASA. An engine of this type is on outdoor display on the grounds of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama. The cancellation of the Lockheed Martin X 33 by the federal government in 2001 decreased funding availability, but aerospike engines remain an area of active research. For example, a milestone was achieved when a joint academic/industry team from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and Garvey Spacecraft Corporation successfully conducted a flight test of a liquid propellant powered aerospike engine in the Mojave Desert on September 20, 2003. CSULB students had developed their Prospector 2 (P 2) rocket using a 1,000 lbf (4.4 kN) LOX/ethanol aerospike engine. This work on aerospike engines continues; Prospector 10, a ten chamber aerospike engine, was test fired June 25, 2008. Further progress came in March 2004 when two successful tests sponsored by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center using high power rockets manufactured by Blacksky Corporation, based in Carlsbad, California. The aerospike nozzles and solid rocket motors were developed and built by the rocket motor division of Cesaroni Technology Incorporated, north of Toronto, Ontario. The two rockets were solid fuel powered and fitted with non truncated toroidal aerospike nozzles. Flown at the Pecos County Aerospace Development Center, Fort Stockton, Texas, the rockets achieved apogees of 26000 feet (7925 m) and speeds of about Mach 1.5. Small scale aerospike engine development using a hybrid rocket propellant configuration has been ongoing by members of the Reaction Research Society. In 2020 the TU Dresden and Fraunhofer IWS started their CFDμSAT Project for research on additively manufactured aerospike engines. A prototype has already been tested in a test cell at TU Dresden's Institute of Aerospace Engineering, achieving a
burn time of 30 seconds.

In July 2014 Firefly Space Systems announced its planned Alpha launcher that uses an aerospike engine for its first stage. Intended for the small satellite launch market, it is designed to launch satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) at a price of US$8–9 million, much lower than with conventional launchers. Firefly Alpha 1.0 was designed to carry payloads of up to It uses carbon composite materials and uses the same basic design for both stages. The plug cluster aerospike engine puts out of thrust. The engine has a bell shaped nozzle that has been cut in half, then stretched to form a ring with the half nozzle now forming the profile of a plug. They later announced that their Executor Aerospike engine would produce of thrust at sea level and of thrust in a vacuum. In June 2017, ARCA announced that they would fly their Demonstrator3 rocket to space, also using a linear aerospike engine. This rocket was designed to test several components of their Haas 2CA at lower cost. They announced a flight for August 2017.

Another spike engine concept model, by KSF Space and Interstellar Space in Los Angeles, was designed for orbital vehicle named SATORI. Due to lack of funding, the concept is still undeveloped.

Rocketstar planned to launch its 3D printed aerospike rocket to an altitude of 50 miles in February 2019 but canceled the mission three days ahead of liftoff citing safety concerns. They are working on a second launch attempt.

In November 2021, Spain based Pangea Aerospace began hot fire testing of its small scale demonstration methane oxygen aerospike engine DemoP1. After successfully testing the demonstrator DemoP1, Pangea plans to up scale to the 300 kN ARCOS engine.

Headquartered in Kent, Washington, Stoke Space is building and testing a distributed architecture LH2/LOX aerospike system for its reusable second stage.

The Bremen based German startup POLARIS Raumflugzeuge GmbH received a Bundeswehr contract to design and flight test a linear aerospike engine in April 2023. The company is set to test this new engine on board of its fourth spaceplane demonstrator, DEMO 4 MIRA, in late 2023 at Peenemünde, the same place where the V 2 ballistic missiles were developed. If successful, MIRA will be the first aerospace vehicle to be powered by a linear aerospike rocket engine during flight.

Based at the University of Bath, the Bath Rocket Team has been developing their own hybrid rocket engine with an aerospike nozzle since 2020. The engine was first tested at the UK Race to Space National Propulsion Competition in 2023. The team is developing a flight ready version of the engine they are planning to fly for the first time at EuRoC24.