XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike Engine

The XRS-2200 linear aerospike engine is displayed in front of Building 4205. This engine was apparently moved here some time after F-1 engine F-4023 was erected there in October 2009.

Looking at the current aerial view, I see that the engine has been moved from approximately the 3:00 position in the circular Propulsion Park on my last visit to approximately the 8:00 position. Based on Google Earth's "View Historical Imagery" feature, it appears that the engine was moved sometime between February 2016 and February 2017.

The XRS-2200 was developed in the late 1990s and was to have been used by the X-33 technology demonstrator vehicle; two engines such as this were to have been placed, side by side, on the base of the space vehicle. Because the XRS-2200 employs a number of small thrust cells (combustion chambers) exhausting against the engine's ramp, pitch, roll, and yaw control can be effected by differential throttling, avoiding the need to gimbal the engines (which saves weight and complexity).

Unfortunately, the X-33 program ran into developmental problems and was cancelled, and the XRS-2200 wasn't chosen for any later program.

The only other XRS-2200 of which I am aware is displayed at the INFINITY Science Center; presumably, these two engines were used in the X-33 full-thrust tests in the video above.

See my XRS-2200/RS-2200 Linear Aerospike Engine Data Sheets page for additional information and for additional information on the X-33 program.