Thrust chamber
- Combustion chamber with regenerative cooling (3D printed)
Illustration
SpaceX
SuperDraco engine
SpaceX's hypergolic launch escape engine for Crew Dragon; SpaceX states the combustion chamber is 3D printed by direct metal laser sintering in Inconel and is regeneratively cooled.
Product ID
spacex-superdraco - Thrust per engine (SpaceX release)
- 16,000 lbf
- Thrust per engine (New Atlas, 2014)
- 16,400 lbf
- Total axial thrust from eight engines
- Up to 120,000 lbf
- Restart
- Multiple restarts
In short
SpaceX's hypergolic launch escape engine for Crew Dragon; SpaceX states the combustion chamber is 3D printed by direct metal laser sintering in Inconel and is regeneratively cooled.
Application
Eight SuperDraco engines are built into the side walls of the Crew Dragon capsule to pull it away from a failing Falcon 9 at any point on the ascent. SpaceX fired all eight in a pad abort test in May 2015 and NASA reports a launch escape test in January 2020. The engine is a reference for a flight-qualified 3D printed superalloy combustion chamber.
Photos
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How it is built
Engine installation
- Engine pods on the midbody side walls (four pods of two engines)
Propellants
- Fuel: monomethylhydrazine (MMH)
- Oxidizer: nitrogen tetroxide (NTO)
- Propellants2
- Thrust chamber1
- Engine installation1
What it is made of
- Inconel (alloy not stated)
Used in Combustion chamber with regenerative cooling (3D printed).
- monomethylhydrazine
Used in Fuel: monomethylhydrazine (MMH).
- nitrogen tetroxide
Used in Oxidizer: nitrogen tetroxide (NTO).
How it connects to other things
Used in
Made or supplied by
-
SpaceX
Chambers produced by SpaceX in-house under the NASA Commercial Crew Program partnership
What we do not know
No alloy grade, injector, nozzle, valve, pressurant, seal, pod or nacelle material is published in the sources found; no standards.
The detailed data
What is written above is built from these numbers and quotes. Each row links to the page it was taken from. Get all of it as JSON, or ask our MCP server.
Features
- Combustion chamber is 3D printed by direct metal laser sintering
- Chamber is regeneratively cooled and printed in Inconel
- Inconel chosen for strength and creep resistance at high temperature
- Hypergolic propellants
- Deep throttling
- Fast ramp from ignition to full throttle (New Atlas, 2014)
- Restartable
- Eight engines give redundancy
- Escape from any point on the ascent trajectory
- SpaceX produced the chambers in partnership with NASA Commercial Crew Program
Specifications
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Thrust per engine (SpaceX release) | 16,000 lbf |
| Thrust per engine (New Atlas, 2014) | 16,400 lbf |
| Thrust measured in the pad abort test (NASA, 2015) | About 15,000 lbf per engine for about six seconds |
| Total axial thrust from eight engines | Up to 120,000 lbf |
| Propellants | Monomethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer (hypergolic) |
| Throttling | Deep throttling (range not stated in the sources read) |
| Restart | Multiple restarts |
| Engines on Crew Dragon | Eight, in four pods on the midbody side walls |
| Qualification testing (SpaceX release of 28 May 2014) | Multiple starts, extended firing durations, extreme off-nominal propellant flow and temperatures |
| Hot fire of a printed chamber | Late 2013 |
| Pad abort test (NASA release of 6 May 2015) | All eight engines fired together at 9 a.m. EDT |
| In-flight abort test | January 2020 |
Materials in detail
Each material named in the sources: where it is used here, which other products use it, and its key numbers when its material page exists.
-
Inconel (alloy not stated)
inconelUsed in 1 partCombustion chamber with regenerative cooling (3D printed)
Also in 6 other productsMaterial page coming soon -
monomethylhydrazine
monomethylhydrazineUsed in 1 partFuel: monomethylhydrazine (MMH)
Material page coming soon -
nitrogen tetroxide
dinitrogen-tetroxideUsed in 1 partOxidizer: nitrogen tetroxide (NTO)
Also in 2 other productsMaterial page coming soon
Every part we have
Only the chamber alloy family (Inconel, grade not stated) and the two propellants are stated; the pods are listed with no material and no injector, nozzle or valve source was found.
Material IDs
inconelmonomethylhydrazinedinitrogen-tetroxide
Thrust chamber1
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combustion chamber with regenerative cooling (3D printed)“The chamber is regeneratively cooled and printed in Inconel, a high-performance superalloy” | Inconel (alloy not stated)inconel | — | Printed on an EOS direct metal laser sintering machine per 3DPrint.com (2020) |
Engine installation1
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine pods on the midbody side walls (four pods of two engines)“Eight SuperDraco engines fire in four pods on the midbody side walls of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft” | Not said | — | Crew Dragon capsule midbody |
Propellants2
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuel: monomethylhydrazine (MMH)“Each engine, the chambers of which are 3-D printed, burns hypergolic propellants monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide.” | monomethylhydrazinemonomethylhydrazine | — | — |
| Oxidizer: nitrogen tetroxide (NTO)“Each engine, the chambers of which are 3-D printed, burns hypergolic propellants monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide.” | nitrogen tetroxidedinitrogen-tetroxide | — | — |
What the sources leave out
No alloy grade, injector, nozzle, valve, pressurant, seal, pod or nacelle material is published in the sources found; no standards.
Where this comes from
7 pages from 5 websites
- nss.org/spacex-completes-qualification-testing-of-superdraco-thruster-for-lau
- newatlas.com/superdraco-test/32292
- nasa.gov/press-release/spacex-demonstrates-astronaut-escape-system-for-crew-dr
- nasa.gov/image-article/crew-dragons-superdraco-engines-fire
- ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20150014261/downloads/20150014261.pdf
- nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/commercial_crew_press_kit_2.pdf
- 3dprint.com/267919/ahead-of-historic-demo-2-astronaut-launch-all-spacex-has-3d-pr
More space products
Collected from public pages and documents, checked 4 Nov 2026.
Published · Updated