LEROS

For the Greek island, see Leros.

LEROS is a family of chemical rocket engines manufactured by Moog-ISP at Westcott, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. LEROS engines have been used as primary apogee engines for telecommunications satellites such as the Lockheed Martin A2100 [1] as well as deep space missions such as Juno.[2]

The family of engines derives from the LEROS 1 which was developed and qualified in the 1990s by Royal Ordnance, later part of British Aerospace. The LEROS engines are made of niobium alloy, which is traditionally used for liquid rocket engines such as the main engine of the Apollo Lunar Module. More than 70 LEROS 1 series engines have been delivered and have flown successfully.[3]

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 (High Thrust Apogee Engine) MMH / MON 1100 N Under development for European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Robotic Exploration Program[5]

Uses

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:

References

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