Full ignition for ESA’s reusable rocket engine
very impressive and competitive - if it were 2010<p>Note that the Raptor 3 is at 269 tons thrust (vis-à-vis 100 tons) and 350 bar chamber pressure (with 100 bar for the Prometheus). The raptor is state-of-the-art full-flow staged combustion which is described as very tricky, Prometheus dated open-cycle. Raptor has been extensively tested and refined for years now and is getting very close to real flight heritage. Once Prometheus has flight models the Raptor will be at least a decade ahead, probably continuing to move rapidly. Taking a guess Raptor is probably much cheaper to produce and operate than Prometheus. It appears like a failed design by plan similar to a decision to continue expendable Arianes provided that &#x27;there are only 10 or so launches per year&#x27; and implicitly that the system is set up to produce throw-away rockets that need lots of resources to produce each example.