LEROS

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For the Greek island, see Leros.

LEROS is a family of chemical rocket engines manufactured by Nammo[1] at Westcott, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. LEROS engines have been used as primary apogee engines for telecommunications satellites such as the Lockheed Martin A2100[2] as well as deep space missions such as Juno.[3] The LEROS engines are made of niobium alloy, which is traditionally used for liquid rocket engines such as the attitude control thrusters of the Apollo Lunar Module.

Types

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Engine Propellant Thrust Isp Comments
LEROS 1c [4] Hydrazine / MON 460 N 325
LEROS 1b Hydrazine / MON 635 N 318
LEROS 2b MMH / MON 407 N 318
LEROS 4 MMH / MON 1100 N 323 [5] Developed c. 2014 for European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Robotic Exploration Program [6]

History

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The family of engines derives from the LEROS 1 which was developed and qualified in the 1990s by Royal Ordnance. The in-space propulsion business was acquired by British Aerospace, then had a sequence of owners including American Pacific Corporation, Moog[7] (from 2012) and Nammo (2017). As of 2011, more than 70 LEROS 1 series engines had been flown successfully.[8]

Uses

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NASA's Juno spacecraft firing its LEROS 1b engine (computer-generated image).

LEROS engines have been used on a number of NASA and other space agency missions:

Incidents

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There have been helium check valve problems on Juno leading to postponed maneuvers, and a failure after the first burn on Intelsat 33e requiring backup low-thrust jets to be used to bring the satellite to its intended orbit.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Nammo acquires Moog's European In-Space Propulsion businesses". MyNewsDesk. 12 June 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  2. ^ Spaceflight Now - LEROS 1c First Firing
  3. ^ Amos, Jonathan (4 September 2012). "Juno Jupiter probe gets British boost". BBC News. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  4. ^ Moog ISP Apogee/Upper Stage Thrusters Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Naicker, Lolan (May 2014). "An overview of development model testing for the LEROS 4 High Thrust Apogee Engine" (PDF). lolannaicker.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  6. ^ Werner, Debra (15 July 2013). "Moog Sees Higher-thrust Liquid Propellant Engine as Right Fit for Mars Missions". SpaceNews. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  7. ^ "Moog Space & Defence Group". moog.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017.
  8. ^ Corporation, American Pacific. "LEROS Engine Propels the Juno Spacecraft on Its Historic Voyage to Jupiter". prnewswire.com. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  9. ^ Astronautix - Mars Global Surveyor Archived 2009-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Spacenews feed - NASA Mercury Messenger Orbit Insertion
  11. ^ Spaceflight101 - Ariane 5 Flight VA206 Archived 2013-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Astronautix - A2100 Platform Archived 2013-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Skyrocket - SBIRS Geo 1
  14. ^ Spaceflight101 - Atlas V SBIRS Geo 2 Launch Archived 2014-09-13 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ a b Stephen Clark (30 January 2017). "Intelsat satellite in service after overcoming engine trouble". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  16. ^ Jonathan Amos (21 February 2019). "Israel's Beresheet robot sets its sights on the Moon". BBC News.
  17. ^ "Mission information - EnVision - Cosmos". EnVision. Archived from the original on 15 May 2025. Retrieved 13 September 2025.