Institute of Space Propulsion

Approximately 220 people work there in the fields of research and tests of rocket engines.

It was set up mainly for the development and tests of combustion chambers, in particular those of the Vulcain 1 and Vinci engines for the European launcher Ariane 5.

In the frame of a German-French cooperation arose the idea to build a common European Research and Technology test stand P8.

The partners SNECMA, Astrium, CNES and DLR made a start on this project in 1992.

The main purpose of this test stand is the research about high pressure combustion of hydrogen and oxygen.