Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 296, Advanced Rocket Engines. I'm Gary Jordan. I'll be your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts,

all the way. You know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more.

Last year in 2022, a revolutionary rocket engine design was tested at NASA's Marshall

Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It's called a rotating detonation rocket engine,

or R-D-R-E. It's a kind of rocket design that's only been theorized until modern advancements

allowed for this once-only imagined technology to become a reality. The rotating detonation design

is fundamentally different from how a traditional rocket engine works, and the traditional rocket

design is one that is very widely used. So when I mention that this rocket engine design

is revolutionary, I mean it. We're talking about a potentially disruptive innovation,

but we still have a ways to go, and we'll get into that. Now to explain this kind of design,

how it works, and what it means, we're going to have to bring in some rocket scientists.

On this episode, we have Tom Teasley, Propulsion Systems Development and Test Engineer

based out of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Steve Heester.

Raised back Distinguished Professor at Purdue University, and co-owner of a small business

in Space LLC located in the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana.

All right, let's get into it. Enjoy.

Steve and Tom, thank you so much for coming on Heester and we have a podcast today.

Thanks very much. Pleased to be here.

Yeah, likewise, pleased to be here as well. Thank you.

Awesome. This is a really cool topic, advanced rocket engines. I need you guys to help me

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