How To Start A Rocket Engine
Liquid-fueled rocket engines operate by flowing fuel and oxidizer into a combustion chamber at high pressure in order to eject mass out of the rocket nozzle at high velocities. While there exist many ways for these propellants to be mixed (called engine cycles), they all have one major technical hurdle: how does a rocket engine get up to operational pressures? Furthermore, how is this done in the zero-normal force environment of orbit?
Starting a liquid rocket engine is a very complex sequence of managing pressures and temperatures throughout all of the valves and pumps in the engine, where the smallest of errors leads to the engine experiencing a RUD (rapid, unscheduled disassembly)…
