Development of the UT San Antonio FLame and Advanced Rocket Experimentation (FLARE) Test Facility

The FLame and Advanced Rocket Experimentation (FLARE) facility at The University of Texas at San Antonio was built to close the design–build–test–iterate (DBTI) cycle for metal additively manufactured (AM) propulsion hardware on a campus without existing test capability. Hardware validation—a required step in DBTI-driven AM development—demands a controlled hot fire test environment. FLARE was student designed, student-sourced, and student-built to establish a robust testbed for research-grade rocket and air-breathing combustor development under tight resource constraints. The facility delivers up to 2 lb/s of stoichiometric gaseous methane–oxygen to support ∼500-lbf thrust-class combustors, including rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs). The thrust stand structure sustains loads up to 1500 lbf with a factor of safety (FOS) of 4. Subsystems for propellant handling/metering, cooling, thrust measurement, data acquisition and control, and custom electronics were developed from first principles to meet accuracy, robustness, and safety requirements across extreme operating regimes in next-generation propulsion systems. The facility architecture reflects necessity-driven decisions: commercial turnkey systems were financially and operationally out of reach. FLARE instead employs repurposed industrial hardware, purchased components, and in-house-fabricated parts to support rapid DBTI cycle closure. This work documents the design logic, supporting analyses, fabrication approach, and current build status of the v0 FLARE facility as a framework for establishing propulsion test capability where commercial infrastructure is inaccessible and no heritage facilities exist. Beyond its immediate research goals, FLARE demonstrates end-to-end, student-led execution across mechanical design, manufacturing, and integration of safety-critical systems: capabilities required for new entrants to develop advanced propulsion hardware in the New Space era.