🚀New Video Out Now!🚀
On April 26th, 2025, USC LPL conducted a record number of static fires in the Mojave Desert, beating our previous record and setting a New Standard for what our lab considers to be the bar.
We are incredibly proud of this concentrated effort and are excited to show off this new documentary on our endeavors!
The video follows our work through the cold flow and hot fire test campaign and how our internal lab infrastructure is gearing up to be integrated into a "Hopper" flight article.
Check out our first-ever documentary on YouTube now at the link in our bio!
On April 26th and May 3rd, LPL hotfired 5 new and upgraded systems. 7 hotfires in just 8 days, a rise from 5 total fires in 2024 and 2 in 2023.
âś… On May 3rd, 3 consecutive hotfires with J&J II, a reusable graphite erosive engine tested with three upgraded systems.
âś… The Atlas Prime test stand (12kg/s mass flow, 1500psi MEOP) fired flawlessly during its inaugural firings after a semester of complete system upgrades.
✅ Our second-gen throttle system with new motors and control logic and our thrust vector control (TVC) system with in-house linear actuators capable of 20 degrees of gimbaling, were successfully tested, providing valuable data for future improvements. These tests saw TVC gimbal to 6 degrees in all directions and the throttle system follow a “bucket” thrust trace to validate their hardware and software systems.
âś… On April 26th, LPL debuted its newest engine, Nomad, on the fully rebuilt Hodor test stand. In just 6.5 hours, Nomad injector completed 4 short-duration hotfires with a copper heatsink chamber, exceeding expectations with a c* efficiency of over 90% and yielding key data for summer testing.
Next up, we’ll be firing Nomad with its regeneratively-cooled chamber, enabling longer-duration tests and full characterization of the regenerative cooling circuit. LPL is excited to utilize this heaping data in our research towards 7 papers for the 2025 International Astronautical Congress (IAC).
#hotfire2025 #usclpl #rocketry #rocketscience #amateurrocketry #collegiaterocketry #usc
January's hotfire yielded LPL's highest-quality throttle data and one of our smoothest startup transients, made possible in part by Cal-Tool's liquid oxygen and gaseous nitrogen supply. The team is also honored to have received the Liquid Propulsion Symposium’s “Frequent Fire” award in recognition of our testing cadence, presented by Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut. (@everydayastronaut )
January’s campaign focused on throttle characterization of our Nomad engine. We collected high-resolution data correlating valve position with flow rate, chamber pressure, and thrust. Using this data, we developed a closed-loop throttle system, which we plan to validate during a hotfire test next Saturday, March 7th, at the Reaction Research Society test site.
About Cal-Tool (@caltoolweldingsupply ):
California Tool and Welding Supply (Cal-Tool) is a family-owned company specializing in industrial gas/cryogenics, process piping solutions, and welding equipment. Cal-Tool prides themselves on being 100% customer focused, with their motto being, “service only a family-owned-and-operated business can supply." They have been an exceptional partner for USC LPL, and we highly recommend them for business, especially to other users of the Mojave rocketry test sites.
Today we celebrate the incredible women and girls pushing the boundaries of science and engineering. Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! ✨🚀💫
“New Standard” — the premiere LPL documentary — is official.
Coming soon is the story of the Nomad Heatsink Ă— Hodor hot fire campaign, brought to life on film by @abrahamabotel and @lukemakingthings Stay tuned for more information on the documentary release in Spring 2026!
On December 6th, LPL hotfired the Nomad engine in its heatsink configuration twice, gained crucial system identification data for the flight control loop, and continued to refine testing operations. This trip topped off our 2025 hotfire resume—marking 10 fires under our belt—double what we achieved in 2024 and 5x our 2023 record.
This trip was the first time Nomad was integrated and fired with our recently-updated Atlas Prime test stand, capable of 12 kg/s mass flow and 1500 psi MEOP. This hotfire also featured LPL’s 3rd-generation throttling hardware, redesigned from the ground-up to be a true, flight-ready system. In the second fire, the throttle team commanded an open-loop, steady-state, and oscillatory profile designed to characterize engine-valves and develop control loops.
We would like to especially thank @avcoaerospace for their generous support with our 3rd-gen throttle hardware. This system is built on AVCO’s v-port ball valves, offering improved flow linearity and the reliability that AVCO valves are known for.
USC LPL at the 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia 🇦🇺🚀
Last week, our team traveled Down Under to present at IAC 2025, sharing research that spanned coaxial injector modeling to wireless telemetry. We proudly represented the University of Southern California in the exchange of knowledge on an international stage, driven by a mission to push the boundaries of student-led innovation.
Our footprint at IAC 2025:
✨ 7 papers accepted for publication in the IAF journal
✨ 7% of all U.S. interactive presentations originated from our team
✨ 5 of our 11 presenters were #liquidladies
Presenting Authors: Rushabh Pawnikar, Sana Hamid, Felix Liu, Lisa Lopez, Ashwin Rajkumar, Nico von Eckartsberg, Emily Hesby, Tolou Pharokhipanah, David Shamis, Ashley Perez, Anthony Costanzo
From Los Angeles to Sydney, our team is proud to be part of the global dialogue in aerospace and propulsion research!
Two weeks ago we conducted a hotfire of Nomad. While the outcome was not what we originally targeted, the test still marked an important step forward for the team.
With just twelve members on site, operations were the most efficient seen to date. The team achieved one successful hotfire, and, for the first time in seven campaigns, brought every piece of critical hardware. This evidences the team’s valuable growth in preparation and execution.
The test also highlighted key lessons for future campaigns: the importance of protecting dewars from heat exposure, independently verifying dewar pressures, and conducting stricter on-site sensor validation. Each firing refines our process, and we are proud of how the team continues to learn and adapt.
We wrapped up the year with a well-deserved celebration of everything we’ve built together—countless hours of testing, designing, troubleshooting, and collaborating.
A special toast to the women in engineering who power our progress every day. From leading design reviews to keeping test ops on track, their impact is woven into every milestone this lab reaches.
Here’s to the team behind the fire. More to come in 2025. 🥂💫 #womeninstem #rocketscience
LPL will be back out at RRS this coming weekend, May 3rd, to fire our J&JIl engine, supported by the upgraded Atlas’ test stand and alongside both our throttle and thrust vector control teams. J&J ll will be fired at a higher chamber pressure and thrust than in last September for our attempt at the CPLC throttle milestone.
#Hotfire2025 #jessieandjames #teamrocket #amateurrocketry #YESthisisrocketscience
