A recent report says that NASA, the US Air Force and KT Engineering Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama, US have successfully test fired a rocket engine fuelled by liquid oxygen and liquid methane for 103 seconds. This was a feat indeed as the reports shows that prior to NASA only Russia has tested the engine in its laboratories.
As per David Stephenson, manager of the Radial Segmented Launch Vehicle project:
The goal for the Air Force and NASA is to take advantage of the fuel’s efficiency to lower the cost of launching rocket.NASA has lots of expectations from this fuel and it also claims that it is more efficient to the hypergolic fuels, especially for carrying people to Mars as Methane and Oxygen can be extracted from Mars atmosphere.
