Hello from Mojave!

It’s time for some video of some new hardware! On Friday, we fired Masten Space Systems’ newest engine prototype, the Katana class KA5S at our test site in Mojave, CA. In this video, you’ll see a 2 second mid-throttle run on a new engine test trailer designed to test engines significantly larger than our current flight engines. This run produced about 2000 pounds of thrust.

We’ve designed several different engine classes, the biggest of which topped out around 1200 pounds of thrust. The Katana class engines will produce up to 4000 pounds of thrust and will power both Masten’s Xogdor class suborbital vehicle and XEUS lander demonstrator. This is a heat-sink prototype of the Katana class – after we dial in the trailer and make a few milestones, we’ll be firing and tuning a regeneratively cooled Katana. Like our other engines, our flight qualified Katana engine will sustain indefinite runtime and demonstrate good throttle response when complete.

It’s satisfying to see a trailer and engine go from the drawing board to CAD models and then to flame producing hardware, and it’ll be even more fun as we test more engines in the near future.

Check back here soon for additional video of Masten Katana class engine runs, more Xaero flights, and updates on Masten’s activity.