Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator

Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator (TLPD) is a prototype liquid-propellant rocket engine under development by the Polish Lukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Aviation (Lukasiewicz-ILOT) for ESA. It uses storable propellant: hydrogen peroxide and ethanol and a 3D-printed combustion chamber. The engine has a nominal thrust of 5 kN, and using a pintle injector, the thrust can be varied between 20% and 110%. TLPD is part of ESA's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). Test firings were performed in 2024 and 2025. The 2025 test campaign added water cooling to the engine's combustion chamber, allowing for longer tests of up to a minute at a time.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Variable-Thrust Rocket Engine Passes Initial Hot-Fire Tests
  2. 1 2 Promising early tests for variable-thrust landing engine
  3. ↑ 3DPrinting.com (2025-02-25). "Polish Rocket Engine With 3D Printed Combustion Chamber Achieves Successful Variable-Thrust Testing". 3D Printing. Retrieved 2025-09-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ Cieśliński, Dawid; Okniński, Adam; Ranachowski, Michał; Molik, Marcin; Bartkowiak, Bartosz; Matysek, Krzysztof; Kutnik, Krystian; Gorgeri, Aleksander; Ogórek, Grzegorz; Borys, Maciej (2025-09-01). "On development of green storable liquid rocket engine with thrust variation". Acta Astronautica. 234: 560–574. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.05.020. ISSN 0094-5765.
  5. ↑ Parsonson, Andrew (2024-08-12). "ESA and Poland Test Fire Variable-Thrust Rocket Engine". European Spaceflight. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  6. ↑ Parsonson, Andrew (2025-02-25). "Poland Completes Second Variable-Thrust Rocket Engine Test Campaign". European Spaceflight. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  7. ↑ "Vary that thrust: longer hot-fire of Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-09-27.