Podcast Ep. #45 – Industrialising Rocket Science with Rocket Factory Augsburg

Stefan Brieschenk is the Chief Operating Officer of Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a company in the south of Germany that is developing a low-cost launch vehicle. RFA’s vision is to drastically reduce the cost of access to space through large-scale industrialisation of their operations and manufacturing.

Key to RFA’s design approach is a holistic performance and cost optimisation tool that has been developed in collaboration with space industry veterans MT Aerospace and OHB. This approach has led to interesting design choices. For example, the second stage tank is based on inexpensive stainless steel construction, and in places where composite materials are being used, RFA is relying on automotive grade materials that have already been used in high-volume production. In their propulsive system, however, RFA is chasing the highest performance—a closed-cycle staged combustion engine, enabled by modern manufacturing capabilities in 3D printing and which is due to be hot-fired early next year.

In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering podcast, Stefan and I talk about:

• Stefan’s passion for rocketry and hypersonic flight
• his background at Rocket Lab and MT Aerospace
• the gap between the European and US space sectors
• RFA’s launch vehicle and design approach
• and Stefan’s vision for the European space sector

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Selected Links from the Episode

• RFA webpage, LinkedIn, Twitter
• Launch vehicle
• Partners: MT Aerospace & OHB
• Ten questions for RFA
• Staged combustion engine
• In the news:
  • Launch site in Andøya
  • ESA support for RFA