Shield Space and Astron announce agreements for the first launches of Shield’s Orbital Sentinel spacecraft and the intention to provide responsive 72-hour orbital tasking from the UK, and jointly present at the NATO RSM (Research Specialists’ Meeting) meeting on dual-use space technologies in Bath.

Astron Systems hosted students from Bristol University's Hypower rocketry team at their test site on Westcott Venture Park last week to test the Bristol team's SRAD liquid bipropellant rocket engine designed for the upcoming EuRoC student rocketry competition. It's a nitrogen pressurised nitrous and IPA 5kN class engine designed to launch their SRAD rocket at EuRoc.

Astron Systems completes an ESA funded contract studying hybrid expander electric cycle rocket engines. The design work was funded through ESA's GSTP (General Support Technology Program) to support the development of hybrid expander electric cycle rocket engines to unlock next-level reusability and lifetime within this size class of engine.

We successfully demonstrated ignition of our first prototype torch igniter running with cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Special thanks to Airborne Engineering Ltd and Buckinghamshire council for their support using Airborne's test stand on Westcott Venture Park.

Whilst combustion chamber and thrust chamber tests often catch people's eye, they are far from the most complex parts of rocket engines. The heart of an orbital rocket engine, and by far the most complex piece, is the pump system. We're excited to share this footage of testing with cryogenic liquid nitrogen this first prototype concept hardware fuel-side hybrid electric turbopump. This is a huge technical milestone towards development of our highly reusable rocket engine in development, which in turn is a key technology within our fully reusable Aurora launch vehicle.