HM7B

The HM7B is a european cryogenic rocket engine which currently powers the upper stage of the Ariane 5 ECA, ESC-A.

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History

The HM7 engine, built upon the development work of HM4, first flew in 1979, powering the third stage of the Ariane 1. The evolved HM7B, with higher specific impulse, powered the third stages of Ariane 2, 3 and 4. It was first used in the Ariane 5 in 2002, when the first ECA version of the launcher flew, although the launch failed before first stage separation, so the first time a HM7B actually powered the upper stage of a Ariane 5 was in 2005. The switch to a cryogenic engine is responsible of more than half of the overall payload increase of the Ariane 5 ECA versus its previous version, the Ariane 5G. The HM 7, HM7B Engine family has 5 failures during its use in Ariane 1 - 4 rockets. Flight V 70 was the last failure of an HM7B. ^[1]

Overview

The HM7B is a gas generator rocket engine fed with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. It has no restart capability: the engine is continuously fired for 950 seconds in its Ariane 5 version (780 s in the Ariane 4). It provides 62.7 kN of thrust with a specific impulse of 444.2 s. The engine's chamber pressure is 3.5 MPa.

See also

• Spacecraft propulsion

Comparable engines

• RL-10
• Vinci

References and notes