Virgin Galactic Conducts Hotfire Test On NewtonThree Engine | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-12.08.25

AirborneNextGen-
12.09.25

Airborne-Unlimited-12.10.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-12.11.25

AirborneUnlimited-12.12.25

AFE 2025 LIVE MOSAIC Town Hall (Archived): www.airborne-live.net

Thu, Oct 15, 2015

Virgin Galactic Conducts Hotfire Test On NewtonThree Engine

Will Power The First Stage Of The Company's Launcher One System

Virgin Galactic has conducted a 90 second hotfire test of the NewtonThree rocket engine that will power the LauncherOne satellite delivery system recently announced by the company.

A video posted on YouTube shows the test fire from start to finish. 

According to Virgin Galactic, LauncherOne’s orbital flights will be achieved using two rocket engines: the single 73,500 lbf thrust ‘NewtonThree’ main stage engine, and a single 5,000 lbf thrust ‘NewtonFour’ upper stage engine. Both the NewtonThree and the NewtonFour are highly reliable, pump-fed LOX/RP-1 liquid rocket engines designed, tested, and built by Virgin Galactic.

Both the NewtonThree and the NewtonFour engines are fed by turbopump assemblies designed in partnership with Barber Nichols Inc., a veteran designer and manufacturer that has previously made turbopumps for NASA, the U.S. military, and private industry.

Development on the engine is expected to continue over the coming months including testing of the full flight configuration.

(Image from Virgin Galactic YouTube video)

FMI: www.virgingalactic.com

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (12.12.25)

Aero Linx: Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) Founded in 1997, the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (USCAST) has developed an integrated, data-driven strategy to reduce the comm>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (12.12.25): Land And Hold Short Operations

Land And Hold Short Operations Operations that include simultaneous takeoffs and landings and/or simultaneous landings when a landing aircraft is able and is instructed by the cont>[...]

ANN FAQ: How Do I Become A News Spy?

We're Everywhere... Thanks To You! Even with the vast resources and incredibly far-reaching scope of the Aero-News Network, every now and then a story that should be reported on sl>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Cirrus Design Corp SF50

Pilot’s Inadvertent Use Of The Landing Gear Control Handle Instead Of The Flaps Selector Switch During The Landing Rollout Analysis: The pilot reported that during the landin>[...]

Airborne 12.08.25: Samaritan’s Purse Hijack, FAA Med Relief, China Rocket Fail

Also: Cosmonaut Kicked Out, Airbus Scales Back, AF Silver Star, Russian A-60 Clobbered A Samaritan’s Purse humanitarian flight was hijacked on Tuesday, December 2, while atte>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC