LISTEN: ‘Self-Eating’ Rocket Engine Burns Fuselage for Fuel

Engineers at the University of Glasgow have designed, developed and fired Ouroborous-3 (ear-uh-bore-us), the first unsupported "autophage" (aa-taa-fuh-j) rocket engine that eats parts of its own body for fuel. The concept seems futuristic, but the idea is actually nearly 100 years old. The hope is the rocket engine can fly far beyond the Earth's atmosphere and make the United Kingdom a larger player in the space industry.