Health monitoring and fault diagnosis of liquid rocket engine (LRE) are the most important concerning issue for the safety of rocket’s flying, especially for the man-carried aerospace engineering. Based on the sensor measurement signals of a certain type of hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine, this paper proposed a real-time fault detection approach using a genetic algorithm-based least squares support vector regression (GA-LSSVR) algorithm for the real-time fault detection of the rocket engine. In order to obtain effective training samples, the data is normalized in this paper. Then, the GA-LSSVR algorithm is derived through comprehensive considerations of the advantages of the Support Vector Regression (SVR) algorithm and Least Square Support Vector Regression (LSSVR). What is more, this paper provided the genetic algorithm to search for the optimal LSSVR parameters. In the end, the computational results of the suggested approach using the rocket practical experimental data are given out. Through the analysis of the results, the effectiveness and the detection accuracy of this presented real-time fault detection method using LSSVR GA-optimized is verified. The experiment results show that this method can effectively diagnose this hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine in real-time, and the method has engineering application value.

The real-time fault detection and diagnosis algorithm of a liquid rocket engine is the basis of online reconfiguration of guidance and the control system of a launch vehicle, which is directly related to the success or failure of space mission. Based on previous related works, this paper carries out comparative experimental studies of relevant intelligent algorithm models for real-time fault detection engineering application requirements of a liquid hydrogen–oxygen rocket engine. Firstly, the working state and detection parameters’ selection of a hydrogen–oxygen engine are analyzed, and the proposed three real-time intelligent fault detection algorithm model design methods are elaborated again. Fault detection calculation and analysis are carried out through normal test data and fault test data. The comparative analysis results of real-time intelligent fault detection algorithm models is presented from three dimensions: detection time, fault detection, and stability and consistency. Finally, based on a correlation analysis, a comprehensive intelligent fault diagnosis model design framework is given to further solve the requirements of real-time fault detection and diagnosis engineering development of a liquid rocket engine, a complex piece of equipment.