The Vulcain rocket engine is named in French for Vulcan, the ancient Roman god of fire.

[14] Subsequently, the nozzle was redesigned to include mechanical reinforcement of the structure and improvement of the thermal situation of the tube wall through enhancing hydrogen coolant flow as well as applying a thermal barrier coating to the flame-facing side of the coolant tubes.

[13] On 17 June 2007 Volvo Aero announced that in spring of 2008 it expected to hot-fire test a Vulcain 2 nozzle manufactured with a new "sandwich" technology.

[18] 3 m tall and 1.76 m in diameter, the engine weighs 1686 kg and provides 137 t of thrust in its latest version.

The main contractor for the Vulcain engines is Snecma Moteurs (France), which also provides the liquid hydrogen turbopump.