This engine is somehow special one, because this high fuel consumption engine has small size as well as weight but really vast power. The article below is what I got from nasa.gov, coopsjokes.com, as well as other sources.
The engine of a space shuttle is actually consisting of three main engines, which are the two solid rocket boosters and the space shuttle engine itself. The space shuttle engine also consists of three main engines, which each of them is 14 feet long, 7.5 feet wide at mouth of nozzle.
The duration of the Shuttle’s powered flight is only 8.5 minutes, for which the main engines continue to operate after launch.
After the two boosters are jettisoned, the main engines provide thrust which accelerates the shuttle from 4,828 Km/h (3,000 mph) to over 27,358 Km/h (17,000 mph) in just six minutes to reach the orbit. Those three engines create combined maximum thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds.
During the accelerating, the main engines burn a half-million gallons of liquid propellant provided by the large external fuel tank, large tank between two boosters. The propellant mixture are 6 parts liquid oxygen to 1 part liquid hydrogen (by weight). This ratio of weight is used to produce thrust of 179,097 kilograms at the sea level and 213,188 kilograms at vacuum. For you know, the liquid hydrogen is the 2nd coldest liquid on Earth, which is minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit (-252.8 degrees Celsius).
From the combustion, engine’s exhaust is primarily water vapor as the hydrogen and oxygen combine. Those engines consume liquid fuel at a rate that would drain average family pool in less than 25 seconds and generating over 37 million horsepower, While, the boosters burn about 5 tons of propellant per second.
The main engines develop thrust by using high-energy propellants in a staged combustion cycle. The propellants are partially combusted in dual pre-burners to produce high-pressure hot gas to drive the turbopumps. The combustion is completed in the main combustion chamber. Temperatures in the main engine combustion chamber can reach 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is higher than metal boiling point.
The engines can be throttled over a thrust range of 65 percent to 109 percent, which provides for a high thrust level during the liftoff and the initial ascent phase but allows thrust to be produced to limit acceleration to 3 g’s during the final scent phase. The engines are gimbaled to provide pitch, yaw and roll control during the ascent.
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