Stoke Space successfully conducted a vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) developmental test flight of their reusable second stage rocket
Update on Hopper2: The Hopper Has Landed | Stoke Space / 100% reusable rockets / USA
https://www.stokespace.com/update-on-hopper2-the-hopper-has-landed/
September 17, 2023 – Today at Stoke Space’s test site in Moses Lake, Washington, we successfully conducted a vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) developmental test flight of our reusable second stage rocket. During this test,...
These are the guys trying to make an AeroSpike engine. This looks to be a test of that! Super cool!
There is video, but I can only find on Twitter presently: https://twitter.com/stoke_space/status/1703569700540883195
From the wiki page linked here, this looks like a toroidal spike. I wonder what sort of gas they use for the base bleed.
Several versions of the design exist, differentiated by their shapes. In the toroidal aerospike the spike is bowl-shaped with the exhaust exiting in a ring around the outer rim. In theory this requires an infinitely long spike for best efficiency, but by blowing a small amount of gas out of the center of a shorter truncated spike (like base bleed in an artillery shell), something similar can be achieved.
Pretty sure those are several small distinct engines, but at high altitude with a large expansion ratio it will kind of work like an aerospike
@davetapley Finally, life imitates art -> a spacecraft made from an old cement mixer. #Salvage #SalvageOne
Everyday Astronaut did a video on the vehicle. it shows a test fire but not the hop (have seen that on YouTube as well). Worth a watch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EY8nbSwjtEY.
Edit: Clarity