At the conclusion of a development campaign for a new solid propellant, should rocket motors be loaded and tested from the first-production scale mix?

plasma thruster in space
Source: https://dsiac.dtic.mil/articles/space-travel-aided-by-plasma-thrusters-past-present-and-future/

Posted on June 25, 2025 | Completed on April 30, 2025 | By: Jamie Neidert, Thomas L. Moore, Pmp, Gary T. Bowman

At the conclusion of a development campaign for a new solid propellant, should rocket motors be loaded and tested from the first-production scale mix?

The mixing of solid propellants for military and space applications remains largely an art rather than an exact science. Solid-propellant development requires a thorough understanding of process parameters. Scaleup bias is a critical consideration in the development, scaleup, and production of new solid-propellant formulations.

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