TR-106
US experimental low-cost hydrolox pintle injector rocket engine
title: "TR-106" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["rocket-engines-using-hydrogen-propellant", "rocket-engines-of-the-united-states"] description: "US experimental low-cost hydrolox pintle injector rocket engine" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-106" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary US experimental low-cost hydrolox pintle injector rocket engine ::
::data[format=table title="infobox rocket engine"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | TR-106 |
| image | SSC_TR-106_Rocket_Engine_under_test.jpg |
| caption | A TRW 650K low-cost pintle engine undergoes hot-fire testing at SSC's E-1 test stand. |
| country_of_origin | United States |
| manufacturer | TRW |
| purpose | low-cost throttleable booster engine |
| type | liquid |
| fuel | LH2 (liquid hydrogen) |
| oxidiser | Liquid oxygen |
| thrust(SL) | 2892 kN |
| :: |
|name=TR-106 | image=SSC_TR-106_Rocket_Engine_under_test.jpg | caption=A TRW 650K low-cost pintle engine undergoes hot-fire testing at SSC's E-1 test stand. |country_of_origin=United States |manufacturer=TRW |purpose=low-cost throttleable booster engine
|type=liquid |fuel=LH2 (liquid hydrogen) |oxidiser=Liquid oxygen
|thrust(SL)=2892 kN |thrust(Vac)= |specific_impulse_vacuum= |specific_impulse_sea_level= |chamber_pressure= |thrust_to_weight= |cycle=
The TR-106 or low-cost pintle engine (LCPE) was a developmental rocket engine designed by TRW under the Space Launch Initiative to reduce the cost of launch services and space flight. Operating on LOX/LH2 the engine had a thrust of 2892 kN, or 650,000 pounds, making it one of the most powerful engines ever constructed.
Overview
The goal of the development was to produce a large, low-cost, easy-to-manufacture booster engine. The design used a single element coaxial pintle injector, a robust type of injector. It also used ablative cooling of the combustion chamber and nozzle instead of the more costly to manufacture regenerative cooling.
The use of the pintle injector allows the engine thrust to be widely throttleable, as was the case for the lunar module descent engine.
Status
Tom Mueller was a lead engineer for development of the LCPE, a 650,000 lbf thrust LOX/LH2 engine. In the summer of 2000, this LCPE was successfully hot fire tested at 100 percent of its rated thrust as well as at a 65 percent throttle condition at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. TRW changed the pintle injector configuration three times during testing to explore the engine's performance envelope; engineers also replaced the ablative chamber once while the engine was on the test stand—demonstrating the LCPE's ease of operation. Test results demonstrated that the engine was stable over a wide variety of thrust levels and propellant ratios.
Development of the engine was temporarily discontinued with the cancellation of the Space Launch Initiative. In 2002 TRW was acquired by Northrop Grumman and development of a LOX/RP-1 engine (TR-107) continued, under contract to NASA, for potential use on next-generation launch and space transportation vehicles.
Legacy
Tom Mueller became TRW vice president of propulsion. In 2002, Elon Musk asked Mueller to join him as a founding member of SpaceX.
Technology lessons from the Low Cost Pintle Engine project were used in the development of the SpaceX Merlin engine. Mueller joined SpaceX in 2002, becoming its head of propulsion, along with other TRW staffers. The turbopump, meanwhile, was contracted to Barber-Nichols, Inc., which derived their pump from their work on the FASTRAC turbopump. After SpaceX accused Northrop Grumman, TRW's parent, of letting engineers supervising SpaceX under a Pentagon contract use that information on Northrop's own rocket technology, Northrop Grumman then sued for theft of trade secrets. The dueling suits were settled in early 2005.
References
References
- (2000-09-26). "TR-106". Astronautix.com.
- (2010-12-08). "Company". SpaceX.
- Mueller, Tom; Dressler, Gordon. TRW 40 klbf LOX/RP-1 low cost pintle engine test results. 35th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, Huntsville, Alabama, July 24, 2000
- (2011-05-01). "Stennis Space Center". Spinoff.nasa.gov.
- "Booster Vehicle Engines".
- Seedhouse, Eric. SpaceX: Making Commercial Spaceflight a Reality, Springer Science & Business, Jun 15, 2013, p. 36
- Air & Space Magazine, December 2011/January 2012, p. 25
- Reingold, Jennifer. Hondas in Space, Fast Company, February 2005
- (1999-04-30). "Rocket Engine Turbopumps". Barber Nichols.
- Karp, Jonathan; Paztor, Andy. Can Defense Contractors Police Their Rivals Without Conflicts? ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'', December 28, 2004
- "Brian Ledahl, Partner - Russ August & Kabat, Los Angeles Intellectual Property Attorney". Raklaw.com.
- Journal, Jonathan KarpStaff Reporter of The Wall Street. (2005-02-11). "Northrop Settles Rocket Dispute With SpaceX". Wall Street Journal.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::