A One-Piece Liquid Rocket Thrust Chamber Assembly

NASA is developing a lightweight one-piece regeneratively cooled thrust chamber assembly (TCA) for liquid rocket engines. Liquid rocket engines create thrust through the expansion of combusted propellants within the TCA. Standard manufacturing of TCAs involves individually building the injector, main combustion chamber and nozzle, and then bolting or welding the components together at the joints. However, potential seal failures in these complex joints can cause catastrophic explosions, as in the tragedy of the Space Shuttle Challenger.