TR-107

The TR-107 was a developmental rocket engine designed in 2002 by Northrop Grumman for the NASA and DoD-funded Space Launch Initiative. Operating on LOX/RP-1, the engine was throttleable and had a thrust of at a chamber pressure of, making it one of the most powerful engines ever constructed.

History

The TR-107 was developed by TRW following the successful conclusion of the development program for the TR-106 engine, a similar throttleable engine of about half the thrust burning LOX/LH2 instead of LOX / RP-1. Tom Mueller, then VP of Propulsion Development at Northrop, was project manager for both the TR-106 and TR-107 engines.
In 2002, Mueller co-founded SpaceX with Elon Musk and became the VP of propulsion after cancellation of the SLI program.

Status

development of the TR-107 engine permitted consideration for potential use on next-generation launch and space transportation systems.
, no flight models are known to exist.