00 — OVERVIEW
The first orbital vehicle powered by digestive combustion.
Fartom 9 is a two-stage reusable launch system that augments conventional LOX/RP-1 thrust with biogenic methane discharge above the stratopause. Seventeen flights flown. Zero gastric anomalies.
01 — VEHICLE ARCHITECTURE
Six assemblies. One very loud exit.
Each Fartom 9 airframe is built from six field-replaceable modules. The fermentation plenum — the heart of the methane-assist system — sits between the upper stage and the gastric cluster, pressurized to 24 bar and acoustically tuned for harmonic efficiency.
A · 01
812 kg
Nose aeroshroud
Titanium-lithium composite · 4.2 m ogive fairing · low-RCS radar coating
A · 02
4,100 kg
Upper stage · crew compartment
Pressurized to 101.3 kPa · seats 6 · triple-redundant olfactory filtration
A · 03
6,340 kg
Fermentation plenum
Anaerobic bioreactor · 38 m³ · sustains 1,200 kg of live methanogens at 38 °C
A · 04
9,880 kg
LOX / RP-1 core
Primary ascent tankage · aluminum-lithium 2195 · common dome separator
A · 05
1,420 kg
Canard stabilizer ring
Four actively-damped fins · countering asymmetric discharge torque (±14°)
A · 06
6,548 kg
Gastric cluster, aft
9-nozzle expansion array · sphincter-gimbaled · regeneratively cooled throats
02 — ENGINEERING DRAWINGS
Published to aid peer review, not so much to keep secrets.
General arrangement, Fartom 9 Block II. Elevation and gastric aft section. Dimensions in millimetres unless noted. Concept illustration — not for fabrication.
General arrangement, F9-B2
Elevation · scale 1 : 40 · sheet 1 of 14
[01]Overall length, stacked62,400 mm
[02]Core diameter3,040 mm
[03]Plenum max diameter4,200 mm
[04]Fairing diameter2,700 mm
[05]Nozzle exit, centre860 mm
[06]Nozzle exit, ring ×8720 mm
[07]Gastric skirt aperture4,800 mm
[08]Gimbal authority, per nozzle± 14°
[09]Dry mass, stacked29,100 kg
Notes — 1. General mechanical tolerances unless otherwise noted. 2. Plenum pressurization limits per structural analysis memo F9-PL-AN-12. 3. Methanogen culture handling per internal lab procedures. 4. Drawing supersedes F9-B1-GA-ISS-06.
DrawingF9-B2-GA-001
RevisionH
Issued2026-04-12
DraftedN. Ōta
CheckedI. Parcival
ApprovedA. Vrind, CE
03 — FLIGHT PROFILE
A nominal ascent has six phases.
Fartom 9 uses conventional LOX / RP-1 propulsion for the atmospheric portion of flight. Biogenic methane assist engages above 48 km, where the external pressure drops below the threshold at which digestive expulsion becomes thermodynamically dominant.
"We didn't invent the mechanism. We just learned to aim it." — Dr. I. Parcival, Chief Gastronaut
0 km · Pad
12 km · Tropopause
32 km · Stratosphere
48 km · Stratopause
85 km · Mesopause
100 km · Kármán line
Pad hold & fermentation prime T-00:04:00
Methanogen cultures elevated to 38 °C. Plenum pressurization to 24 bar. Final go/no-go poll.
Main engine ignition T+00:00:00
LOX/RP-1 ignition. Thrust-to-weight 1.38. Plenum isolation valves locked.
Max-Q & pitch program T+00:01:18
Dynamic pressure peak. Canards trim for trajectory. Plenum valves armed, not open.
GAS event — sphincter unseal T+00:03:42
Gastric-Assisted Separation. Methane vents through 9-nozzle array at 2,340 m/s.
Stage separation T+00:05:06
Plenum jettison. Core stage returns for powered landing at Pad 4C.
Orbital insertion T+00:08:48
Upper stage achieves 405 km × 51.6° inclination. Payload deploy within 90 s.
04 — EJECTION SEQUENCE
T-zero to apogee, frame by frame.
High-speed imagery from Flight 15 ("Open Window"). Three pad cameras and one downrange tracker. Unprocessed. Un-narrated. The GAS event begins at the 03:42 mark — you will know when.
CAM 02 · Full flight composite — pad to GAS event
F9-15-CAM-02-RAW.H265 · 11.6 GB · loop
T-00:10
T+00:00
T+01:18
T+03:42
T+05:06
SECTION 05 — GAS EVENT · SYSTEM REVIEW
At forty-eight kilometres, the vehicle exhales.
One hundred and four seconds of sustained biogenic methane combustion, vectored through nine sphincter-gimbaled nozzles. Peer-reviewed. Odorless in vacuum. Louder than any chemical stage ever fired by thirty-one decibels.
Exit velocity
2,340
m · s⁻¹
Specific impulse
412
seconds (vac)
Peak sound pressure
197
dB re 20 µPa
Methane burn rate
11.4
kg · s⁻¹
Plenum temperature
2,840
kelvin
Gimbal authority
±14°
per nozzle
Event duration
104.2
seconds nominal
Anomaly rate
0.00
per flight
Nozzle cross-section, A-06 centre
The central gastric nozzle is a bell-type expansion chamber with a 4.2 : 1 expansion ratio. Combustion is initiated at the plenum outlet and held stable by a boundary of regeneratively-cooled CH₄ flowing through 112 tubular channels embedded in the throat wall.
Chamber pressure18.6 MPa
Throat diameter210 mm
Exit diameter860 mm
Cooling channels112 × ø 3.2 mm
Material, throatNb-C103 alloy
Material, bellInconel 718
Gimbal actuatorHydraulic, dual EHA
Shell
CH₄ cold feed
Combustion
06 — MISSION CAPABILITIES
Payload-agnostic. Atmosphere-optional. Gastrically tuned.
The Fartom 9 airframe services LEO, GTO, and lunar free-return trajectories. The methane-assist stage adds 1,820 m/s of ΔV in any mission profile that accepts a 104-second mid-flight audible signature.
C · 01
Low-earth orbit deploy
Up to 14.2 t to 500 km circular. Dual-manifest bay with 5.2 m diameter shroud.
C · 02
Geostationary transfer
6.1 t to GTO with nominal plenum utilization. Full reuse of core and gastric cluster.
C · 03
Crewed suborbital
Six passenger cabin. Five minutes of weightlessness. Noise-cancelling headsets included.
C · 04
Lunar free return
Cis-lunar injection with a single plenum event. Crew rated for 8-day duration.
C · 05
Rapid reuse turnaround
14-day pad-to-pad refly. Methanogen cultures regenerate between flights from galley scraps.
C · 06
Carbon-negative launch
Biogenic CH₄ sequesters more carbon in the plenum than is released in combustion. Net −4.3 t per flight.
07 — LAUNCH MANIFEST
Upcoming flights.
| Mission | Date (UTC) | Payload | Trajectory | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F9 · Flight 17"Silent Majority" | 2026-05-03 · 09:41 | Starlink v2 × 22 | LEO · 51.6° | Go for launch |
| F9 · Flight 18"Backdraft" | 2026-05-17 · 02:12 | KARI CAS500-4 | SSO · 98.2° | Go for launch |
| F9 · Flight 19"Room Clearer" | 2026-06-04 · 14:00 | ESA ARTIS-3 | GTO | Weather hold |
| F9 · Flight 20"Silent But Deadly" | 2026-06-22 · 22:47 | Crewed suborbital × 6 | Sub-orbital | Go for launch |
| F9 · Flight 16"Crop Duster" | 2026-04-11 · 08:03 | NASA TROPICS-6 | LEO · 30° | Complete |
| F9 · Flight 15"Open Window" | 2026-03-24 · 19:18 | Intelsat G-41 | GTO | Complete |
08 — BOOK A LAUNCH
Clear a window on your calendar. And possibly the room.
Fartom 9 is accepting commercial, government, and private crew manifests through Q3 2027. Launches depart from Pads 4B and 4C at El Gouna, Egypt, on the Red Sea coast. A $120k non-refundable deposit holds your orbit.