MIAMI, Florida USA — Founded in 1994, eAc has pioneered the development of nitrous oxide hybrid propulsion including the first ever sounding rocket flight of such a system from a NASA launch facility.

eAc has been designing, testing, and flying hybrid rocket motors for tactical missiles, sounding rockets, and satellite launch applications; and with this announcement, space tourism. After two years of secret development with Scaled Composites, eAc is proud to announce its involvement as a vendor for the propulsion system for SpaceShipOne.

The program was revealed on Friday, April 18, 2003. "Even though they are a tiny company ... they've fired over a thousand hybrid motors, and that's why they were selected," said Burt Rutan at the event. Korey Kline, eAc Director of R&D was quoted as saying "These are the Wright Brothers days of Civilian Space Flight"

Several developmental firings at our test facility in Miami were conducted in support of the SpaceShipOne propulsion system. The experiences of the South Florida testing allowed eAc to bring to Scaled a functional and proven system resulting in the efficient execution of the first successful static test in Mojave. eAc's forward bulkhead with the SpaceShipOne oxidizer filling and vent systems was selected and qualified thru a competition with another vendor and will be used for all ground and flight testing. The hybrid rocket design represents the state of the art in low recurring cost nitrous oxide hybrid propulsion for space tourism applications.

eAc is currently working on advanced hybrid propulsion developments with AFRL and DARPA, including the world's smallest orbital launch vehicle, the MuLV. The MuLV is a safe, responsive, and affordable launch system that will carry 350-1200lb payloads into low earth orbit. A turbo-pump fed 30,000 lb thrust common-core booster design is used to lower development costs.

A single motor system is designed and used for the central booster motor, with a variety of combinations of strap-on boosters of the same design. The lifting capacity is determined by this first stage configuration. Developmental firings include a 16" diameter nitrous hybrid that has produced 11,000 lbs thrust levels. The first series of nine test firings on this scale have been very successful allowing us to fine-tune the fuel grain geometry and injector design.

Environmental Aeroscience Corp.
305-267-7588