I see that they are involved with three other firms in a Nanolaunch Project to develop a F-15 based air-launch system that could put a 30 kg payload into a to a 400 kilometer polar orbit.
Their News page is not very illuminating (some links appear to be missing) buy they have posted a couple of videos recently showing tests on their work in eliminating "low frequency instabilities in the LOX/paraffin-based hybrids". This first video displays a test in Tillamook, Oregon of the firm's 11" hybrid rocket motor in a mode that results in an instability:
Here is a video with the same motor but with stability fixes in place:
The company Peroxide Propulsion in Sweden has shut down production due to a fire and serious injury to the owner Erik Bengtsson. The message on the homepage:
On July 22, 2010 Peroxide Propulsion suffered a terrible accident at our production facilities in Gunnilse, Sweden. Founder and co-owner, Erik Bengtsson, was working at the plant with a routine procedure when hot hydrogen peroxide steam exploded in his face. The plant subsequently burned to the ground. All stock of propellant grade hydrogen peroxide was destroyed in the fire.
Erik is currently hospitalized and listed as stable. After being temporarily blinded his vision is returning. Peroxide Propulsion, however, will not continue operations. We ask for your understanding in this matter, and wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to all our customers these past years.
Some rocket projects in the US have purchased peroxide supplies from the firm.
A reader came across these YouTube videos of tests of a large rocket in Canada. The caption says "November 17, 2009 - Stein Industries Inc. rocket engine test 31,000 lbs of thrust for 12 seconds using LOX and Alcohol." It is apparently Stein Industries of London, Ontario. I don't see anything on their website about rockets but the president of the company is involved in rocketry according to his LinkedIn page. The reader notes that the test stand looks to be the same as a Planetspace video.
Colsa and sub-prime contractor Orion Propulsion are teaming to develop a Multipurpose NanoMissile System (MNMS) for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. The evolving project will provide a production missile that will cost less than $1 million, be capable of transitioning from storage to “launch-ready” within 24 hours and serve as a delivery vehicle capable of performing a variety of low-cost sub-orbital missions of various ranges and altitudes, and inserting a payload of up to 10 kilograms into low Earth orbit. James “HB” Puckett, project manager, MNMS, Colsa, told MSMF, “This is supposed to be a small vehicle that is configurable with a common, bi-propellant liquid booster. These boosters can be put together in a number of different ways.”
We signed an agreement with NASA last December to actually mount the VF-200 on the International Space Station in 2012 or 2013. Unfortunately, the space station doesn’t have 200 kilowatts to give us. So what we’ll do is use the solar arrays of the station to charge a battery pack that we’ll carry on board, which will allow us to fire the rocket at 200 kilowatts for up to 15 minutes. We’ll do this again and again for months to qualify the engine in space. In 2013 or 2014, we’ll make clusters of 200-kilowatt engines to give us something close to a megawatt of electricity, and deploy them with a very high-powered solar array. This will be a robotic reusable “space tug” that can refuel or reposition satellites, or even send packages to the Moon at a much lower price. By charging for those services, we hope to bootstrap our way into developing a megawatt-class rocket.
This is a video describing the initial development of a nanoscale aluminum and water ice (ALICE) propellant. This work was done by a collaborative effort between Purdue and Penn State University and was funded by AFOSR and NASA. The support of Dr. Mitat Birkan is particularly noted. Applications include in situ propellants. Much work remains to improve performance.
...with the cancellation of the program, orders came down to destroy the remaining NK-33s. Nikolay Kuznetsov, who headed the Kuznetsov Design Bureau that produced the NK-33 at a plant in Samara, in the Volga region, risked his neck when he disobeyed that order and squirreled away some unused engines in an underground storage locale for more than 20 years. When they reappeared, they were in such good shape that they needed very little updating to become flight ready.
