Hydrazine Monopropellant Rocket Engines
Aerojet Rocketdyne (L3Harris)
Hydrazine monopropellant engine family from 0.02 lbf to 700 lbf thrust, with more than 19,000 units delivered.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Thrust
- 0.02 N
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Thrust range
- 0.02 lbf to 700 lbf
- Propellant
- Hydrazine (catalytic decomposition)
- Units delivered
- More than 19,000
- Applications
- Planetary transit course corrections, orbital capture and insertion, landing, precision pointing, attitude and spin control, launch vehicle upper stage roll/pitch/yaw control and propellant settling
About
L3Harris has delivered more than 19,000 hydrazine-fueled monopropellant engines providing thrust levels ranging from 0.02 pounds to 700 pounds. Monopropellant engines generate thrust by flowing liquid hydrazine into a catalytic decomposition chamber where the propellant undergoes a highly energetic decomposition, producing gases that are then accelerated through a nozzle.
L3Harris monopropellant thrusters have been used on missions to explore every planet in the solar system, typically for planetary transit course corrections, orbital capture/insertion and landing. The Sky Crane that lowered NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance Rovers to the Martian surface used L3Harris monopropellant thrusters to hover during the process and then to whisk the carrier spacecraft away from the landing site.
Monopropellant engines also are used for precision pointing, and attitude and spin control on various satellites and spacecraft, including ISS crew and servicing spacecraft. On launch vehicle upper stages, monopropellant thrusters are used for pitch, roll and yaw control, as well as for engine propellant settling burns.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.