Rocketdyne was an American

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accorda ...

design and production company headquartered in

Canoga Park Canoga Park is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Before the Mexican–American War, the district was part of a rancho, and after the American victory it was converted into wheat farms and ...

, in the western San Fernando Valley of suburban

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, in southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The Rocketdyne Division was founded by

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the ...

(NAA) in 1955, and was later part of

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avionics and industrial products. R ...

(1967–1996) and

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...

(1996–2005). In 2005, the Rocketdyne Division was sold to United Technologies Corporation, becoming Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne as part of Pratt & Whitney. In 2013, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne was sold to GenCorp, which merged it with Aerojet to form Aerojet Rocketdyne.Marjorie Censer
(18 Dec 2022) L3Harris moves to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne
for $4.7 billion, after Lockheed Martin ended its attempt for Rocketdyne in Feb 2022

History

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

(NAA) was contracted by the Defense Department to study the German V-2 missile and adapt its engine to Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) measurements and U.S. construction details. NAA also used the same general concept of separate burner/injectors from the V-2 engine design to build a much larger engine for the Navaho missile project (1946–1958). This work was considered unimportant in the 1940s and funded at a very low level, but the start of the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

in 1950 changed priorities. NAA had begun to use the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) high in the Simi Hills around 1947 for the Navaho's rocket engine testing. At that time the site was much further away from major populated areas than the early test sites NAA had been using within Los Angeles. Navaho ran into continual difficulties and was canceled in 1958 when the

Chrysler Corporation Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

Missile Division's Redstone missile design (essentially an improved V-2) had caught up in development. However the Rocketdyne engine, known as the A-5 or NAA75-110, proved to be considerably more reliable than the one developed for Redstone, so the missile was redesigned with the A-5 even though the resulting missile had much shorter range. As the missile entered production, NAA spun off Rocketdyne in 1955 as a separate division, and built its new plant in the then small Los Angeles suburb of

, in the San Fernando Valley near and below its Santa Susana Field Laboratory. In 1967, NAA, with its Rocketdyne and Atomics International divisions, merged with the Rockwell Corporation to form North American Rockwell, becoming in 1973

Thor, Delta, Atlas

Rocketdyne's next major development was its first all-new design, the S-3D, which had been developed in parallel to the V-2 derived A series. The S-3 was used on the Army's Jupiter missile design, essentially a development of the Redstone, and was later selected for the competitor Air Force Thor missile. An even larger design, the LR89/LR105, was used on the

Atlas missile The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Di ...

. The Thor had a short military career, but it was used as a satellite launcher through the 1950s and 60s in a number of different versions. One, ''Thor Delta'', became the baseline for the current Delta series of space launchers, although since the late 1960s the Delta has had almost nothing in common with the Thor. Although the original S-3 engine was used on some Delta versions, most use its updated

RS-27 The RS-27 was a liquid-propellant rocket engine developed in 1974 by Rocketdyne to replace the aging MB-3 in the Delta. Incorporating components of the venerable MB-3 and the H-1 designs, the RS-27 was a modernized version of the basic design ...

design, originally developed as a single engine to replace the three-engine cluster on the Atlas. The Atlas also had a short military career as a deterrent weapon, but the Atlas rocket family descended from it became an important orbital launcher for many decades, both for the Project Mercury crewed spacecraft, and in the much-employed Atlas-Agena and Atlas-Centaur rockets. The

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Mart ...

is still in manufacture and use. Rocketdyne's test stand for testing the J-2 engine in Santa Susana Mountains 6417049

NASA

Rocketdyne also became the major supplier for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

's development efforts, supplying all of the major engines for the Saturn rocket, and potentially, the huge Nova rocket designs. Rocketdyne's H-1 engine was used by the

Saturn I The Saturn I was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to low Earth orbit payloads.Terminology has changed since the 1960s; back then, 20,000 pounds was considered "heavy lift". The rocket's first st ...

booster main stage. Five F-1 engines powered the

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...

S-IC The S-IC (pronounced S-one-C) was the first stage of the American Saturn V rocket. The S-IC stage was manufactured by the Boeing Company. Like the first stages of most rockets, most of its mass of more than at launch was propellant, in this cas ...

first stage, while five J-2 engines powered its S-II second stage, and one J-2 the S-IVB third stages. By 1965, Rocketdyne built the vast majority of United States rocket engines, excepting those of the

Titan rocket Titan was a family of United States expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. The Titan I and Titan II were part of the US Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet until 1987. The space launch vehicle versions contribute ...

(built by Aerojet), and its payroll had grown to 65,000. This sort of growth appeared to be destined to continue in the 1970s when Rocketdyne won the contract for the RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), but the rapid downturn in other military and civilian contracts led to downsizing of the company. North American Aviation, largely a spacecraft manufacturer, and also tied almost entirely to the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program n ...

, merged with the Rockwell Corporation in 1966 to form the North American Rockwell company, which became

in 1973, with Rocketdyne as a major division.

Facilities and operations

;Canoga Park, California Rocketdyne maintained division headquarters and rocket engine manufacturing facilities at Canoga Park from 1955 until 2014. North American Aviation's rocket development activities began with engine tests nearby the Los Angeles Airport. In 1948, NAA began testing liquid rocket engines within the Simi Hills which would later become the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The company sought a location for a manufacturing plant nearby the Simi Hills testing site. In 1954, North American Aviation purchased 56 acres of land within the current

Warner Center Warner Center is a master-planned neighborhood and business district development in the Canoga Park and Woodland Hills neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California.Station 84(Woodland Hills) an(Canoga Park) serve Warner C ...

area then deeded the property to the Air Force. The Air Force, in turn, designated the site Air Force Plant No. 56 and contracted with Rocketdyne to build and operate the facility. NAA completed construction of the main manufacturing building and designated Rocketdyne as a new company division in November 1955. Air Force Plant 56 in 1960 operated by Rocketdyne

Air Force Plant 56 in 1960 operated by Rocketdyne

Rocketdyne's success resulted in the addition of buildings within a growing footprint. At its peak, the Rocketdyne Canoga facility comprised some 27 different buildings over 119 acres of land, including over one million square feet of manufacturing area plus 516,000 square feet of office space. The Canoga plant grew into areas both east and southeast of the original location. In 1960, Rocketdyne opened a headquarters building at the southeast corner of Victory Boulevard and Canoga Avenue. A pedestrian tunnel underneath Victory Boulevard east of Canoga Avenue provided access between buildings to the South (including the Headquarters) and those located to the North of the street. (The tunnel was removed in 1973.) The Canoga plant shrank over time via piecemeal property sales and building demolitions into the 2000s. With the completion of the Apollo program in 1969, Rocketdyne ended the leases of several facilities and returned the headquarter offices to the Canoga Main building. In 1973, Rocketdyne repurchased the Air Force Plant No. 56 property thereby ending the government designation. The Space Shuttle program ended in 2011 and further reductions followed. Pratt and Whitney retained ownership of the Canoga property when Rocketdyne was sold to Aerojet in 2013; the remaining property measured roughly 47 acres with building and structures comprising a total of 770,000 square feet. Rocketdyne played a key role in the United States space program and the development of propulsion systems. Ten years after being established, the Canoga plant produced the vast majority of America's United States liquid rocket engines (except those of the Titan rocket, them being built by Aerojet). Through the end of the twentieth century, Rocketdyne products powered all major engines for the Saturn program and every space program in the United States. Six specific periods of liquid rocket engine development and manufacturing programs took place at the Canoga plant:

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geogra ...

(1954-late 1960s),

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, ...

(1961-1975),

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

(1955-1962), Saturn (1961-1975);

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

(1961-1972);

(1981-2011). Key rocket engine technologies were advanced at the Rocketdyne Canoga plant: gimbaling of rocket engines, introduction of engine injector baffling plates for improved combustion stability, tubular regenerative cooling, "stage and a half" engine configuration first used on

, thrust chamber ignition using pyrophoric chemicals and electrically-controlled starting sequences. Aerojet Rocketdyne moved their office and manufacturing operations to the DeSoto campus in 2014. Demolition and site clearing of the former Rocketdyne facility in Canoga Park commenced in August 2016. As of February 2019, the future land use of the site has not been announced. ;McGregor, Texas Rocketdyne's Solid Propulsion Operations business unit was engaged in the development, testing and production of solid rocket engines at McGregor, Texas for nearly twenty years. The Rocket Fuels Division of

Phillips Petroleum Company Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...

began using the former Bluebonnet Ordnance Plant in 1952. In 1958, Phillips and Rocketdyne entered a partnership to form Astrodyne Incorporated. In 1959, Rocketdyne purchased full ownership of the company and renamed it Solid Propulsion Operations (later designated the Solid Rocket Division). The purchase caused Rocketdyne to invest in facilities and research at McGregor towards diversification into other propellant types and rockets engines. Notably, Rocketdyne installed a facility capable of testing engines having up to three million pounds of thrust. 2012-08 Lockheed F-104G ZELL anagoria

The Solid Propulsion Operations initially used ammonium nitrate -based propellants in the manufacture of

gas generator A gas generator is a device for generating gas. A gas generator may create gas by a chemical reaction or from a solid or liquid source, when storing a pressurized gas is undesirable or impractical. The term often refers to a device that uses a ...

s used to start aircraft jet engines, turbo pumps of the

Rocketdyne H-1 The Rocketdyne H-1 was a thrust liquid-propellant rocket engine burning LOX and RP-1. The H-1 was developed for use in the S-I and S-IB first stages of the Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets, respectively, where it was used in clusters of eight en ...

rocket engine and the manufacture of the Jet Assisted Take Off (

JATO JATO (acronym for jet-assisted take-off) is a type of assisted take-off for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets. The term ''JATO'' is used interchangeably with the (more specifi ...

) rocket engines.

Ullage motor Ullage motors (also known as ullage engines or ullage rockets) are relatively small, independently fueled rocket engines that may be fired prior to main engine ignition, when the vehicle is in a zero-g situation. The resulting acceleration cause ...

s were developed for the Saturn V Space Vehicle. The group also built solid propellant boosters providing for the zero-length launching of North American F-100 Super Sabre and Lockheed F-104 Starfighter aircraft. The motor provided a takeoff thrust of 130,000 lbf for 4 seconds, accelerating the aircraft to 275 miles per hour and 4 g before separating and dropping away from the jet. In 1959, the group began using ammonium perchlorate oxidizer combined with carboxyl-terminated polybutadiene (CTPB) binder to produce solid propellants marketed under the trade name "Flexadyne." For the next nineteen years, Rocketdyne used the formulation in the production of solid rocket motors for three major missile systems: the AIM-7 Sparrow III, AGM-45 Shrike, and the AIM-54 Phoenix. Rocketdyne transferred operation of the McGregor plant to

Hercules Inc. Hercules, Inc. was a chemical and munitions manufacturing company based in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, incorporated in 1912 as the Hercules Powder Company following the breakup of the DuPont explosives monopoly by the U.S. Circuit Co ...

in 1978. A portion of the former Bluebonnet Ordnance Plant is now used by SpaceX as their Rocket Development and Test Facility. ;Neosho, Missouri A rocket engine manufacturing plant was operated by Rocketdyne over a twelve-year period at Neosho, Missouri. The plant was constructed by the U.S. Air Force within a 2,000-acre portion of

Fort Crowder Fort Crowder was a U.S. Army post located in Newton and McDonald counties in southwest Missouri, constructed and used during World War II. Establishment and purpose Camp Crowder was a military installation named in honor of Major General E ...

, a decommissioned World War II training base. The Rocketdyne division of North American Aviation operated the site, employing approximately 1,250 workers beginning in 1956. The plant primarily produced the MA-5 booster, sustainer and vernier rocket engines, H-1 engines and components for the F-1 and J-2 rocket engines. The P4-1 (a.k.a. LR64) engine was also manufactured for the AQM-37A target drone. The engines and components were evaluated at an on-site test area located approximately one mile from the plant. Rocketdyne closed the plant in 1968. The plant has been used by several different companies for the refurbishment of jet aircraft engines. The citizens of Neosho have placed a commemorative monument dedicated to the men and women of Rocketdyne Neosho "whose tireless efforts and relentless pursuit of quality resulted in the world's finest liquid rocket engines." ;Nevada Field Laboratory Rocketdyne established and operated a 120,000 acre rocket engine test and development facility nearby Reno, Nevada from 1962 until 1970. The Nevada Field Laboratory had three active open-air test facilities and two administrative areas. The test facilities were used for the Gemini and Apollo space programs, the annular aerospike engine and the early (proposal-stage) development of the Space Shuttle main engine.

Downsizing

During continued downsizing in the 1980s and 1990s, Rockwell International shed several parts of the former North American Rockwell corporation. The aerospace entities of Rockwell International, including the former NAA and Rocketdyne, were sold to Boeing in 1996. Rocketdyne became part of Boeing's Defense division. In February 2005, Boeing reached an agreement to sell what was by then referred to as "Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power" to Pratt & Whitney of United Technologies Corporation. The transaction was completed on August 2, 2005. Boeing retained ownership of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Lab. GenCorp purchased Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in 2013 from United Technologies Corporation, and merged it with Aerojet to form Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Power generation

In addition to its primary business of building rocket engines, Rocketdyne has developed power generation and control systems. These included early

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

generation experiments,

radioisotope thermoelectric generator A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioa ...

s (RTG), and solar power equipment, including the main power system for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

. In the Boeing sale to Pratt & Whitney, the Power Systems division of Rocketdyne was transferred to Hamilton Sundstrand, another subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation.

List of engines

Some of the engines developed by Rocketdyne are: * Rocketdyne A1 to A6 ( LOX/Alcohol) Used on Redstone * Rocketdyne A7 ( LOX/Alcohol) Used on Jupiter C * Rocketdyne 16NS-1,000 * Rocketdyne Kiwi Nuclear rocket engine * Rocketdyne M-34 * Rocketdyne MA-2 * Rocketdyne MA-3 * Rocketdyne MB-3 see S-3D * Rocketdyne Megaboom modular sled rocket * Rocketdyne P * Rocketdyne LR64 * Rocketdyne LR70 * Rocketdyne LR89 *

Rocketdyne LR79 Rocketdyne was an American rocket engine design and production company headquartered in Canoga Park, in the western San Fernando Valley of suburban Los Angeles, in southern California. The Rocketdyne Division was founded by North American ...

family (XLR71-NA-1, B-2C, XLR83-NA-1, LR79-7, S-3D, XLR89-1, MB-3-1, X-1, LR83-NA-1, H-1, LR89-5, XLR89-5, S-3, LR89-7, MB-3-J, MB-3 Press Mod, MB-3-3, RZ.2, H-1c, H-1b, RS-27, RS-27A, RS-56-OBA, RS-27C) * Rocketdyne LR-101 Vernier engine used by Atlas, Thor and Delta * Rocketdyne LR105 family (S-4, LR105-5, XLR105-5, LR105-7, RS-56-OSA, LR105-3) * Rocketdyne Aeolus * Rocketdyne XRS-2200, linear aerospike engine, tested for X-33 * Rocketdyne RS-2200, linear aerospike engine, intended for Venturestar *

Rocketdyne S-3D The Rocketdyne S-3D is an American liquid rocket engine produced by Rocketdyne between 1956 and 1961 for use on the PGM-19 Jupiter and PGM-17 Thor missiles, and the Juno II rocket. Its design was used later as the basis for the H-1 rocket eng ...

( RP-1/ LOX) Used on PGM-19 Jupiter and PGM-17 Thor missiles, and on the Juno II * Rocketdyne E-1 ( RP-1/ LOX) Backup design for the Titan I * Rocketdyne F-1 ( RP-1/ LOX) Used by the

. *

( RP-1/ LOX) Used by the

and IB * Rocketdyne J-2 ( LH2/ LOX) Used by both the Saturn V and Saturn IB. * Rocketdyne RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) ( LH2/ LOX) The main engine for the

, also used on the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any ...

* Rocketdyne RS-27A ( RP-1/ LOX) Used by the Delta II/

III III or iii may refer to: Companies * Information International, Inc., a computer technology company * Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company * 3i, formerly Investors in Industry, a British investment company Other uses * ...

and Atlas ICBM * Rocketdyne RS-56 ( RP-1/ LOX) Used by the Atlas II first stage * Rocketdyne RS-68 ( LH2/ LOX) Used by the

Delta IV Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, th ...

first stage

Gallery

File:F-1 rocket engine.jpg, F-1 rocket engine File:Redstone Rocket Engine.jpg, Rocketdyne 75-110-A-6 (Redstone) File:H-1 rocket engine diagram.jpg, H-1 rocket engine diagram File:J-2 rocket engine.jpg, J-2 rocket engine diagram File:Artist concept of the J-2X rocket engine.jpg, Concept image of a J-2X rocket engine File:Mercury Atlas vernier motor, Truax variant.jpg, Mercury Atlas vernier motor, (Rocketdyne LR101) File:Stafford Air & Space Museum, Weatherford, OK, US (34).jpg, LR-105 engine (central sustainer engine of the Atlas rocket) File:Rocketdyne LR79 (1).jpg, LR-79 / MB3 engine for Thor ICBM File:Rockets Huntsville Alabama 1987.jpg, LR89 File:Titan_4B_Upper_Stage_Aft_with_a_single_LR91.jpg, LR91-AJ-11 (Titan 4B upper stage) File:AGM-53A Condor rocket motor.jpg, AGM-53A Condor rocket motor File:RL-10 rocket engine.jpg, RL-10 engine characteristics

References

External links

Rocketdyne internet archives
(unofficial)
GenCorp: Rocketdyne Acquisition presentation
{{Authority control 01 Rocketry Aerospace companies of the United States Defense companies of the United States Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Manufacturing companies based in Los Angeles Canoga Park, Los Angeles Simi Hills North American Aviation Boeing mergers and acquisitions Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings United Technologies American companies established in 1955 Manufacturing companies established in 1955 Technology companies established in 1955 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2005 Technology companies disestablished in 2005 1955 establishments in California 2005 disestablishments in California Defunct manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles History of the San Fernando Valley 1967 mergers and acquisitions 1996 mergers and acquisitions 2005 mergers and acquisitions