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As of January 2024, two methane-fueled rockets have reached orbit. Several others are in development and two orbital launch attempts failed: Zhuque-2 successfully reached orbit on its second flight on 12 July 2023, becoming the first methane-fueled rocket to do so. [25] It had failed to reach orbit on its maiden flight on 14 December 2022.
Furthermore, these balances in efficiency-vs-power makes methane more suitable for a single-fuel rocket, which have proven more economical than dual-fuel rockets (due to less complexity). As such, methalox has made a resurgence in popularity in 21st century rockets, at the expense of kerolox (better efficiency) and hydrolox (better handling).
Rocket stages that fly through the atmosphere usually use lower performing, high molecular mass, high-density propellants due to the smaller and lighter tankage required. Upper stages, which mostly or only operate in the vacuum of space, tend to use the high energy, high performance, low density liquid hydrogen fuel.
Bipropellant liquid rockets use a liquid fuel such as liquid hydrogen or RP-1, and a liquid oxidizer such as liquid oxygen. The engine may be a cryogenic rocket engine , where the fuel and oxidizer, such as hydrogen and oxygen, are gases which have been liquefied at very low temperatures.
RL-10 is an early example of cryogenic rocket engine.. Rocket engines need high mass flow rates of both oxidizer and fuel to generate useful thrust. Oxygen, the simplest and most common oxidizer, is in the gas phase at standard temperature and pressure, as is hydrogen, the simplest fuel.
Refined liquid methane as well as LNG is used as a rocket fuel, [29] when combined with liquid oxygen, as in the TQ-12, BE-4, Raptor, and YF-215 engines. [30] Due to the similarities between methane and LNG such engines are commonly grouped together under the term methalox .
Hybrid-propellant rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellant, typically involving a liquid oxidizer being pumped through a hollow cylinder of solid fuel. All current spacecraft use conventional chemical rockets (solid-fuel or liquid bipropellant) for launch, though some [note 3] have used air-breathing engines on their first stage ...
Full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) is a twin-shaft staged combustion fuel cycle design that uses both oxidizer-rich and fuel-rich preburners where the entire supply of both propellants passes through the turbines. [5] The fuel turbopump is driven by the fuel-rich preburner, and the oxidizer turbopump is driven by the oxidizer-rich preburner. [6 ...