• Project Role: Test Operations Lead

• Test Date: 4/3/2025

• Thrust: 320lbf

• Chamber Pressure: 280psi

• Isp: ~220s

• Burn Time: 2 Seconds

• Propellants: Liquid Oxygen / Isopropanol

• Cooling: Phenolic Ablative

• Special Thanks: ASU Sun Devil Rocketry Liquids

In August 2024, I took on the role of Liquids Test Operations Lead at ASU's Sun Devil Rocketry.  In this role, I have overseen the bring-up of a new 350lbf LOx/IPA ablative rocket engine and getting it ready for its first test, as well as the execution of the first nominal liquid rocket engine hotfire in ASU history.

Test Operations Led:

Throughout the first months of the year, I assisted the liquids propulsion team in early design and modeling of the engine, drafting injector manifolds and chamber designs, and getting designs for parts such as the graphite nozzle ready for manufacturing.  Upon receipt of all components, I led the engine's component testing, including injector waterflows and CdA characterization, and a hydrostatic test up to ~600psi to complete a ~1.5 factor of safety proof test on the injector and thrust chamber.  These tests confirmed the structural integrity of the engine and a propellant oxidizer-fuel mixture ratio within a healthy range, as well as helping to tune tank pressure setpoints to hit nominal thrust levels.

After component testing, I led the reactivation of our LOx/IPA test stand, which had previously used in two prior hotfire attempts, both of which ended in engine failures.  This work included doing valve activation checkouts, gas leak checks, and changing hotfire procedures to reflect new valves and systems installed on the test stand.  Throughout the following weeks, the team completed 11 full system cold flows, hunting down leaks, observing injector spray patterns throughout transients and steady state, and gaining valuable operational experience.  Throughout the testing campaign, test cadence was increased by a factor of >2, with the fastest cold flow recycle times being ~25 minutes, and a brand new hotfire autosequence was developed, with the hope of softening starts and shutdowns to increase the health and life of hardware.

During the hotfire test campaign, I served as the test director, coordinating the assembly of the engine and test stand at the site, and leading activation checkouts such as leak checks, click checks, and dry sequence runs.  In this role, I also led operations such as nominal procedure items including system purges, tank filling, operator go/no-go checks and got to count down ASU's first successful liquid hotfire.

The test itself did not occur on the first possible attempt - the first attempt resulted in a lack of ignition, due to the ignitor initiator e-match failing.  After this, I led the inspection and reassembly of the ignition system, system purges, engine re-integration, and our second run through of test operations.  In all of this, the team maintained a test operations cadence much faster than that achieved by previous years' teams, which showed the positive results of our long cold flow testing campaign.