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UK National Space Propulsion Test Facility

UK Space Agency / STFC, operated by Nammo

Westcott Venture Park, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England

Access: Yes

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Testing capabilities

  • Propulsion and fluid systems
  • Functional and integrated-system testing

Services

Development, qualification and acceptance testing of monopropellant and bipropellant chemical space thrusters; reaction-control, attitude-control and apogee engines; propellant management/conditioning and on-site propellant analysis.

Equipment

Three high-altitude horizontal test facilities at 1,500 N, 30 N and 3 N; stated operating range 100 N to 1,500 N; instrumented thrust stand, thermal cameras, flow/temperature measurements and full data acquisition. Vacuum cell pressure stated as 4.5 mbar for 1.5 kN thrusters and 1.5 mbar for 1 kN thrusters; test-ready in under 15 minutes. Listed propellants include hydrazine, MMH and MON3.

Standards

No accreditation stated on cited page; development, qualification and acceptance test programmes explicitly offered.

Contact

Email: nsptf@stfc.ac.uk

Approximate location

Westcott ยท Town location

View approximate location on OpenStreetMap

Sources