dscc6015.jpg

View of the liquid propellant gas generator (LPGG).

Picture 1 of 4.

The liquid propellant gas generator is essentially an inefficient rocket engine, consuming high-pressure LOX and RP-1 from the engine's turbopump, whose output gases are used to spin the turbopump's turbine during the engine's maintstage operation. To keep operating temperatures down, the LPGG was run fuel-rich, so the output gases were dark with soot. After spinning the turbine, these gases were routed through the heat exchanger and through the engine's aspirator, where it mixed with exhaust gases from the main thrust chamber.

The LPGG is a teardrop-shaped component; visible here, forward of the solid-propellant gas generator, is the lower, bulbous portion of the LPGG.