• Simplified business transaction
• Promote innovation & creativity
• Increase efficacy
• Cost reduction
• Enhanced Security
• Wider reach of service
• Accelerate capability fielding
• Rocket propulsion RDT&E subject matter experts

Industry partners at AFRL will have access to world-class:

Facilities

• High thrust Facilities
  • 19 Liquid Engine Stands
  • 13 Solid Rocket Motor Pad
• Simulated Altitude and Deep Space Environment Facilities
• Chemical & Propellant Laboratories
• Fabrication & Weld Shops

Areas of Expertise

Testing and Experimental Demonstration of Rocket Engines/Motors, Vacuum and Thernal Vacuum Testing, Solid Rocket Motor hardware design, data analysis, and optimization, Liquid Rocket Engines, In-space Propulsion, Electric & Chemical Propulsion Systems, Digital Engineering, Modeling, Simulation, & Analysis, Military Utility Analysis, Chemical In-space Thrusters, Combustion Devices, Injectors, Propellants, Thermal Management, SRM Nozzles, Igniters, Insulation, highly loaded grain,
SRM Cases.

Technologies

Technologies range from basic research to demonstration and transition; spanning liquid rocket engines, solid rocket motors, in-space propulsion, and digital engineering.

The Gateway To Site facilitates the execution of a variety of different non-Federal-Acquisition-Regulation (FAR) based agreements that allow for long-term commitments utilizing Title 10 authorities.

• CTA – Commercial Test Agreement
• CRADA – Cooperative Research and Development
• Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)/Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
• PID/SOC – “Test Contract” through AFTC

Gateway to Site in-house teams and Industry partners have laid the technological groundwork necessary to make partnerships a reality. AFRL is collaborating with industry partners to accelerate their development and transition them to the commercial and government marketplace supporting the warfighter.

Partnership with RQ-West is open to all stakeholders (or potential stakeholders) that are U.S. companies and eligible to receive ITAR.

Inquiries may be directed to: AFRL.RQR.Gateway@us.af.mil

• The overall objective of this CRADA is to develop new SRM technologies that will lower cost, improve quality, expand performance, and reduce existing development and manufacturing timelines. This CRADA enables cooperative development of breakthrough manufacturing technologies including high-temperature composite cases and modular rocket motors. Impacts to date include acceleration of propellant formulation and mechanical testing for use with novel propellant processing techniques.

• This CRADA established the means by which to evaluate gas-gas main combustion chamber (MCC) injector hardware in cold flow and hot-fire tests for the SpaceX Raptor engine program. Subject matter expertise from AFRL including injector design methodologies, propellant thermo-fluid behavior, and chemical reactivity was made available to assist in the characterization of performance, compatibility, and stability characteristics of candidate injector element designs in an integrated, subscale, staged combustion configuration comprising fuel-rich and oxidizer-rich pre-burners.
• This AFRL-SpaceX collaboration followed the transfer of AFRL’s Integrated Powerhead Demonstrator (IPD) engine hardware, drawings, design and data packages to SpaceX. IPD served as the first American Full Flow Staged Combustion engine design developed and tested, creating a knowledge base for the American industry. The early Raptor development program benefited from AFRL’s IPD technology to accelerate early conceptual development and design. These efforts increased innovation, mitigated risk for commercial entities, and motivated the inclusion of advanced technology into flight systems for the DOD and the nation.

• Leveraging a national asset capability in a one-of-a kind vacuum test facility, AFRL and Blue Origin began a long-term collaboration for the vacuum testing, qualification and operational support of Blue Origin’s BE-7, which will support NASA’s human landing system program. The 15-year collaboration agreement provides the means to validate the BE-7s capabilities in a vacuum environment. This collaboration began with upgrading of one of AFRL’s large vacuum test cells.
• The test cell originally designed for large solid motor upper stages, was upgraded with new cryogenic propellant systems unique for BE-7. These upgrades provide for increased national capability for testing of cryogenic vacuum engines beyond BE-7. The upgrades provided by this Public Private Partnership has achieved mutual benefit from combining the Blue Origin funded capital improvements with the AFRL test expertise. AFRL and Blue Origin have successfully accomplished an initial vacuum test of the BE-7 engine.

• AFRL has a public private partnership and contracted efforts with Honeywell Aerospace Technologies to demonstrate a cutting-edge LiDAR weather sensing technology. AFRL has identified the High-Altitude LiDAR Atmospheric Sensing (HALAS) system, developed by Honeywell, as a key enabling technology for range operations for Space Launch. Under this collaboration and in coordination with USSF Space Launch Delta 30 (SLD 30), AFRL and Honeywell initiated a 12-month proof-of-concept demonstration this September at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). This activity is part of a real-world demonstration of the system with operators from the VSFB Weather Operational Support Squadron (OSS) during commercial and DoD launches. If operational objectives are met, AFRL seeks to transition this technology to the Warfighter in 2025. This technology development and maturation will provide operational support for Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS), National Security Space Launch (NSSL), Missile Defense, and Global Strike missions.
• The ability to launch on time within tight launch windows requires accurate high-altitude weather data. Weather has historically been a leading cause of launch delays and launch scrubs. HALAS delivers up-to-date environmental information that launch decision authorities need, to make marginal “go/no-go” decisions with confidence.

• Phase Four and AFRL’s partnership is to develop an RF thruster design that can operate on both traditional and non-traditional electric propulsion propellants. The testing will consist of various sizes of RF thrusters using non-traditional molecular propellants along with collaborative discussions regarding mission requirements and capabilities. This partnership includes the use of AFRL test facilities and available AFRL diagnostics to collect additional telemetry while running a thruster. The accomplishments thus far include a successful demonstration of a thruster running on a molecular propellant and data that has aided the development of a new, larger thruster design that is significantly more capable than its predecessor.

• The CRADA with Revolution Space provided access to AFRL modeling and simulation capabilities and test facilities to rapidly advance the design maturity of the company’s PALOMINO ion array thruster for in-space operations. The ion array thruster provides twice the thrust to power of existing electric propulsion systems while maintaining high fuel efficiency.
• Five successful ground tests were performed at AFRL, leading to a thruster design that will support USSF operations requiring sustained space maneuver throughout LEO and cislunar space. The CRADA was critical to advancing the revolutionary PALOMINO conceptual design and enabled Revolution Space to secure a competitively awarded flight opportunity. PALOMINO is scheduled for on-orbit testing as part of a Cygnus resupply mission to the ISS in 2025 with commercial propulsion modules available in 2026.

• The partnership between AFRL and Astrobotic is to develop an AFRL Rocket Flight Test Range for Vertical Takeoff/Vertical Landing (VTVL) rockets at Edwards AFB along with the joint flight demonstration of Liquid Rocket Engine (LRE) and Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) technologies. The technologies being developed include combustion chambers, injectors, nozzles, powerpacks, and associated subcomponent designs, testing, and optimization, with particular emphasis on methane (CH4) / liquid oxygen (LOX) and Rocket Propellant-2 (RP-2) / LOX powered rocket-propulsion systems. Upcoming major tests include the flight test of an Astrobotic VTVL rocket at AFRL Edwards.