British rocket engine lands on the Moon: the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lunar lander has successfully touched down on the Moon, powered by an innovative engine designed and built by Nammo UK at Westcott in Buckinghamshire.
This talk provides an overview of the LEROS 4 high thrust apogee engine used, and charts its design and development through the initial concepts, to hot fire testing at sea level and altitude. In addition to the engine itself, the test facilities are discussed. As the LEROS 4 has an unusual thrust level, there are few facilities in the world that can efficiently test it. Accordingly, Nammo designed and built a vacuum test facility which allows testing up to 1.5kN of thrust to accommodate the LEROS 4 programme. Some unique features of this facility are explained. The talk finishes with the in-flight experience of the inaugural flight: the LEROS 4-ET on board the Firefly Blue Ghost lunar lander which was the first private commercial lunar lander to successfully land on the moon.
Speaker: Dr Ian Coxhill
Ian graduated with an Masters of Physics in 1999 from the University of Leicester and embarked on a PhD at the University of Surrey researching bi-propellant rocket engines for small spacecraft. Upon completion of his PhD, he worked at Surrey Satellites on a range of propulsion systems including China DMC+4, Rapideye and GSTBV-2A, the first Galileo navigation satellite demonstrator. Ian left SSTL in 2008 and took the role of Chief Engineer at AMPAC, Westcott UK. AMPAC was the then owner of the LEROS apogee engine product line, inherited from British Aerospace which has direct lineage back to the Westcott Rocket Propulsion Establishment, created in 1945. Ian was the lead engineer on the high-profile NASA Juno (Jupiter mission) LEROS 1b main engine which was used to enter Jovian orbit in 2016.
Image: Dr Ian Coxhill (Chief Engineer)(Left) and Nick Hodgins (Lead Clean Room Engineer) with LEROS 4-ET SNo 4001 (post hot fire test)
Under Ian’s tenure, AMPAC was sold to MOOG and then onto the current owners NAMMO. Over this period of time, a significant number of high-profile missions have benefitted from the Westcott produced apogee engines included the GPSIII constellation, numerous telecommunication satellites and the space based infra-red warning system series of satellites. Since 2011 the Westcott facility has been engaged with the development of the LEROS 4, a high thrust apogee engine which Ian was initiator of, and in recent years has been the lead engineer for.
Some technical details: The LEROS 4 rocket engine is a nominal 1.05 kN thrust engine, burning MMH and 
MON-3 with an Isp of >317s. The engine can be considered as an enhanced thrust version of the conventional ~400N apogee engines used on many telecommunication platforms. The motivation for the development of this engine was the need for high performance, high thrust propulsion, particularly where gravity losses are high – typical of interplanetary manoeuvres. There are a limited number of commercially available engines in the ~1kN class with a high specific impulse. The LEROS 4 engine aimed to fill this gap and provide a flexible engine for high thrust applications. Two variants of the engine were developed out of the main programme: the LEROS 4 and the LEROS 4-ET. Whilst the LEROS 4 has a nominal thrust of 1.05kN, the ET (Extended Thrust) version operates at a nominal 1.31 kN (295 lbf).
Meeting Timetable
- 13.55 – The meeting is available to join
- 14.00 – Welcome
- 14.05 – The LEROS 4: A High Thrust Spacecraft Engine for Interplanetary Applications
- 14.45 ish – Questions and Answers (we enable everyone’s microphone to allow an interactive Q&A session)
So, here’s the Plan/Joining Instructions!
- Register for the Talk using the link below
- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScfz102SQE8f-_-Z4YGH8SaMoQ8M6brTZreymraaUIgLKgnKQ/viewform
- Before the event, we will send you an email with the joining link for the meeting.
- On the day, click meeting link (and follow the on-screen instructions to install Zoom if prompted)
Please Note
The Conference Call and Q & A sessions will be recorded (which may capture your name, picture, voice or video) and made available via the West Midlands Facebook group and possibly via the BIS HQ website. You consent to this by registering for the Conference Call/Q & A sessions.
