The engine uses a design called full-flow staged combustion, where both the engine’s fuel and oxidizer — liquified natural gas and liquid oxygen, respectively — go through separate preburners before going into the main combustion chamber.
The engine uses a design called full-flow staged combustion, where both the engine’s fuel and oxidizer — liquified natural gas and liquid oxygen, respectively — go through separate preburners before going into the main combustion chamber.
Interestingly, Nova’s actively cooled heat shield design bears some resemblance to one of the early Starship designs, though I think SpaceX was planning to “sweat” methane rather than recirculate hydrogen.