On Saturday, 12 April 2008, the CALVEIN (CAlifornia Launch Vehicle Education INitiatve) team of CSULB and GSC jointly conducted a flight test of the Prospector 14 LOX-Methane (P-14LM) vehicle that featured a 1,000 lbf-thrust LOX-methane engine developed by CSULB students as part of their senior design course.  It is believed that this is the first such powered flight of this cryogenic propellant combination, which is under consideration for applications in a variety of future space exploration initiatives.  It was supported entirely by internal team resources and took place at the FAR, Inc. test site outside of Mojave, CA. 

The P-14LM airframe is a refurbished version of the original Prospector 1 that flew back in 2001. The engine consists of a flathead injector and an ablative chamber and uses cryogenic methane in the form of liquified natural gas (LNG).  An earlier attempt to fly the vehicle had resulted in a hard start that separated the ablative chamber from the injector.  In just two weeks the CSULB students developed a replacement engine that featured enhancements from our larger 4.5K lbf engine design that proved to be critical to enabling nominal engine performance.

Figure 1: Launch Crew with the P-14 Prior to Propellant Loading

Figure 2. Liftoff

Figure 3. P-14 in Powered Flight

Figure 4. Post-Landing

Figure 5. CSULB Students with Prof. Eric Besnard After Vehicle Recovery

Figure 6. Post-Flight Engine Close-up