RS-88

An RS-88 is fired at Stennis Space Center
Country of origin	United States
Manufacturer	Aerojet Rocketdyne
Application	Developed into an abort motor for the CST-100 Starliner
Status	Active
Liquid-fuel engine
Propellant	Liquid oxygen / Ethanol or MMH / NTO (LAE variant)
Performance
Thrust	220kN (ethanol) or 176.6kN (hypergolic)
Used in
CST-100 Starliner

The RS-88 is a liquid-fueled rocket engine burning ethanol as fuel, and using liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer. It was designed and built by Rocketdyne, originally for the NASA Bantam System Technology program (1997).

In 2003, it was designated by Lockheed for their pad abort demonstration (PAD) vehicle. NASA tested the RS-88 in a series of 14 hot-fire tests, resulting in 55 seconds of successful engine operation in November and December 2003. The RS-88 engine proved to be capable of 50,000 lbf (220 kN) of thrust at sea level.

A hypergolic derivative of the RS-88 has been selected for the Boeing CST-100 Starliner launch escape system.^[1] This version is capable of 39,700lbf (176.6kN) of thrust and four are used in Starliner's abort system.^[2]

Bantam Launch System

The Bantam System Technology Project, which is part of the Low Cost Technologies effort, teams NASA and its business partners to research and demonstrate technologies for a new low-cost launch system. A technology demonstration flight was targeted for late 1999.^[3]

The RS-88 engine was designed by Rocketdyne under NASA's Bantam program^[4] which was the propulsion element of the low-cost technologies of the larger Advanced Space Transportation Program.

Boeing CST-100

The launch escape system for Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft uses a lightweight, hypergolic derivative of the RS-88 called the Launch Abort Engine (LAE).^[5]