Rocketdyne is an American

rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...

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 The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

of suburban

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, in southern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Rocketdyne was founded as a division of

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 F- ...

in 1955 and was later part of

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

from 1967 until 1996 and

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

from 1996 to 2005. In 2005, Boeing sold the Rocketdyne division to

United Technologies Corporation United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational corporation, multinational list of conglomerates, conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous are ...

, becoming

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) was an American company that designed and produced rocket engines that use liquid rocket propellants, liquid propellants. It was a division of Pratt & Whitney, a fully owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corpo ...

as part of

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...

. In 2013, Rocketdyne was sold to GenCorp, Inc., which merged it with

Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp, ...

to form

Aerojet Rocketdyne Aerojet Rocketdyne is a subsidiary of American Arms industry, defense company L3Harris that manufactures rocket, Hypersonic flight, hypersonic, and electric propulsive systems for space, defense, civil and commercial applications. Aerojet traces ...

.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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(NAA) was contracted by the Defense Department to study the German

V-2 missile The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a " veng ...

and adapt its engine to

Society of Automotive Engineers SAE International is a global professional association and standards organization based in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, United States. Formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, the organization adopted its current name in 2006 to reflect bot ...

(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 The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation (NAA). The final design was capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the USSR from bases within the US, while cruising at ...

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 The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

in 1950 changed priorities. NAA had begun to use the

Santa Susana Field Laboratory The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), formerly known as Rocketdyne, is a complex of industrial research and development facilities located on a portion of Southern California in an unincorporated area of Ventura County in the Simi Hills betw ...

(SSFL) high in the

Simi Hills The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County, California, Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, of Southern California, United States. The range runs ma ...

around 1947 for the Navaho's rocket engine testing. At that time the site was much farther 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 FCA US, LLC, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of ...

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

near and below its Santa Susana Field Laboratory. In 1967, NAA, with its Rocketdyne and

Atomics International Atomics International was a division of the North American Aviation company (later acquired by the Rockwell International company) which engaged principally in the early development of nuclear technology and Nuclear reactor technology, nuclear ...

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 The PGM-19 Jupiter was the first nuclear weapon, nuclear armed, medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was a liquid-propellant rocket using RP-1 fuel and Liquid oxygen, LOX oxidizer, with a single Rocketd ...

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. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dy ...

. 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 Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

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 (Rocket System-27) was a liquid-propellant rocket engine developed in 1974 by Rocketdyne to replace the aging Rocketdyne S-3D, MB-3 in the Delta. Incorporating components of the venerable MB-3 and the Rocketdyne H-1, H-1 designs, the ...

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 Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

crewed spacecraft, and in the much-employed

Atlas-Agena The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978. It was used to launch the first ...

and

Atlas-Centaur The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. The vehicle featured a Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage, the first such stage to use high-performance liquid hydrogen as fuel. La ...

rockets. The

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...

is still in manufacture and use.

NASA

Rocketdyne also became the major supplier for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

'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 Payload (air and space craft), payloads.Terminology has changed since the 1960s; back then, 20,000 pounds was considered "heavy l ...

booster main stage. Five F-1 engines powered the

Saturn V The 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, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

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, more than 90% of the mass at launch was propellant, in this case RP ...

first stage, while five J-2 engines powered its

S-II The S-II (pronounced "S-two") was the second stage of the Saturn V rocket. It was built by North American Aviation. Using liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) it had five J-2 engines in a quincunx pattern. The second stage accelerated ...

second stage, and one J-2 the

S-IVB The S-IVB (pronounced "S-four-B") was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice: first for Earth ...

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

), 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 launch system, 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. ...

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

in 1973, with Rocketdyne as a major division.

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

. The transaction was completed on August 2, 2005. Boeing retained ownership of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Lab. GenCorp, Inc. purchased Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in 2013 from United Technologies Corporation, and merged it with

to form

Facilities and operations

Canoga Park, California

Air Force Plant 56 in 1960 operated by Rocketdyne

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

which would later become the

. 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 Warn ...

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. 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 headquarters 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

in 2013; the remaining property measured roughly 47 acres with buildings 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

). 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 world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

(1954-late 1960s),

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

(1961-1975),

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

(1955-1962),

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

(1961-1975);

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

(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 Regenerative cooling is a method of cooling gases in which compressed gas is cooled by allowing it to expand and thereby take heat from the surroundings. The cooled expanded gas then passes through a heat exchanger where it cools the incoming com ...

, "stage and a half" engine configuration first used on

, thrust chamber ignition using pyrophoric chemicals and electrically controlled starting sequences. Aerojet Rocketdyne moved its office and manufacturing operations to the De Soto Avenue 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 th ...

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, turbopumps 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 (rocket), Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets, respectively, where it was used in c ...

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 specific ...

) 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 causes ...

s were developed for the Saturn V Space Vehicle. The group also built solid propellant boosters providing for the

zero-length launch The zero-length launch system or zero-length take-off system (ZLL, ZLTO, ZEL, ZELL) is a PTOL method whereby jet fighters and attack aircraft could be near-vertically launched using rocket motors to rapidly gain speed and altitude, in partic ...

ing of

North American F-100 Super Sabre The North American F-100 Super Sabre is an American supersonic jet fighter aircraft designed and produced by the aircraft manufacturer North American Aviation. The first of the Century Series of American jet fighters, it was the first United ...

and

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the " Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an ...

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 The AIM-7 Sparrow (Air Intercept Missile) is an American medium-range semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile operated by the United States Air Force, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and various other air forces and navies. Sp ...

III, AGM-45 Shrike, and the

AIM-54 Phoenix The AIM-54 Phoenix is an American active radar-guided, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (AAM), carried in clusters of up to six missiles on the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, its only operational launch platform. The AIM-54 Phoenix was the United S ...

. 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 Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

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, 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 The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes. It belongs to the class of altitude compensating nozzle engines. Aerospike engines were proposed for many single-stage- ...

and the early (proposal-stage) development of the

Space Shuttle main engine The RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is used on the Space Launch System. Designed and manufactured in the United States by Rocketd ...

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 by ...

generation experiments,

radioisotope thermoelectric generator A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), or radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the Decay heat, heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material i ...

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

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

and pioneering work in tower type

concentrating solar power Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated whe ...

The Solar Project The SOLAR Project consists of the Solar One, Solar Two and Solar Tres solar thermal power plants based in the Mojave Desert, United States and Andalucía, Spain. The US Department of Energy (DOE) and a consortium of US utilities built the cou ...

. In the Boeing sale to

, the Power Systems division of Rocketdyne was transferred to

Hamilton Sundstrand Hamilton Sundstrand was an American globally active corporation that manufactured and supported aerospace and industrial products for worldwide markets. A subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, it was headquartered in Windsor Locks, Con ...

, another subsidiary of

List of engines

Some of the engines developed by Rocketdyne are: * Rocketdyne A1 to A6 (

LOX Lox is a fillet of brined salmon, which may be smoked. Lox is frequently served on a bagel with cream cheese, and often garnished with tomato, onion, cucumber, and capers. Etymology The American English word ''lox'' is a borrowing of Yiddi ...

/Alcohol) Used on Redstone * Rocketdyne A7 (

/Alcohol) Used on

Jupiter-C The Jupiter-C was an American research and development vehicle developed from the Jupiter-A. Jupiter-C was used for three Uncrewed vehicle, uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957 to test Re-entry vehicle, re-entry nosecones that were ...

* Rocketdyne 16NS-1,000 * Rocketdyne Kiwi Nuclear rocket engine * Rocketdyne M-34 * Rocketdyne MA-2 * Rocketdyne MA-3 * Rocketdyne Megaboom modular sled rocket * Rocketdyne P * Rocketdyne LR64 * Rocketdyne LR70 * Rocketdyne LR79 family: ** XLR83-NA-1 - Navaho G-26 ** XLR89-1 - Atlas A ** LR79-7 -

Thor-Able The Thor-Able was an American expendable launch system used for a series of re-entry vehicle tests and spacecraft launches between 1958 and 1960. It was a two-stage rocket, consisting of a Thor IRBM as a first stage and a Vanguard-derived Abl ...

, Thor-Agena A, Thor Agena B, Thor Agena D,

Thor-Burner The Thor-Burner was an American expendable launch system, a member of the Thor rocket family. It consisted of a Thor missile, with one or two Burner upper stages. It was used between 1965 and 1976 to orbit a number of satellites, most commonly ...

** S-3D -

** XLR89-1 - Atlas A, B, C ** XLR71-NA-1 - Navaho II ** B-2C - Atlas A ** XLR89-5 - Atlas D ** S-3 -

Juno II Juno II was an American space launch vehicle used during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was derived from the Jupiter missile, which was used as the first stage. Development Solid-fueled rocket motors derived from the MGM-29 Sergeant we ...

, Saturn A-2 ** MB-3-1 - Delta A, B, C,

Thor Ablestar The Thor-Ablestar, or Thor-Able-Star, also known as Thor-Epsilon was an early American expendable launch system consisting of a PGM-17 Thor missile, with an Ablestar upper stage. It was a member of the Thor family of rockets, and was derived fro ...

** LR89-5 - Atlas E, F ** H-1 -

/ IB ** MB-3 Press Mod - Sea Horse ** LR89-7 -

Atlas LV-3C The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. The vehicle featured a Centaur upper stage, the first such stage to use high-performance liquid hydrogen as fuel. Launches were conducted fr ...

Atlas Agena The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978. It was used to launch the first five Mariner uncrewed ...

Atlas Centaur The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. The vehicle featured a Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage, the first such stage to use high-performance liquid hydrogen as fuel. La ...

Atlas F The SM-65F Atlas, or Atlas-F, was the final operational variant of the Atlas missile, only differing from the Atlas E in the launch facility and guidance package used. It first flew on 8 August 1961, and was deployed as an operational ICBM between ...

/ Agena D,

Atlas H The Atlas H was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas family of rockets, and was used to launch five clusters of Naval Ocean Surveillance System, NOSS satell ...

, Atlas G,

Atlas I The Atlas I was a US expendable launch system manufactured by General Dynamics in the 1990s to launch a variety of satellites. It was largely a commercial rebrand of the Atlas G (although it did fly multiple government payloads), but did featur ...

** MB-3-3 - H-I ** RZ.2 - Europa ** H-1c - Saturn IB-A, IB-B ** H-1b -

Saturn B-1 Studied in 1959, the ''Saturn B-1'', was a four-stage concept rocket similar to the Jupiter-C, and consisted of a Saturn IB first stage, a cluster of four Titan I first stages used for a second stage, a S-IV third stage and a Centaur high-energy li ...

, Saturn A-2,

Saturn IB The Saturn IB (also known as the uprated Saturn I) was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage (, 43,3 ...

, Saturn IB-C, Saturn IB-CE, Saturn IB-D, Saturn INT-11, Saturn INT-12, Saturn INT-13, Saturn INT-14, Saturn INT-15. ** RS-27 - N-I, N-II,

Delta 1000 The Delta 1000 series (also referred to as Straight-Eight) was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct eight orbital launches between 1972 and 1975. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets. Several variants existed, d ...

Delta 4000 The Delta 4000 series was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct two orbital launches in 1989 and 1990. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets. Although several variants were put forward, only the Delta 4925 was la ...

Delta 5000 The Delta 5000 series was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct an orbital launch in 1989. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets. Although several variants were put forward, only the Delta 5920 was launched. The ...

Delta 2000 The Delta 2000 series was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct forty-four orbital launches between 1974 and 1981. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets, sometimes called Thorad Delta. Several variants existed, ...

Delta 3000 The Delta 3000 series was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct 38 orbital launches between 1975 and 1989. It was a member of the Delta family of rockets. Several variants existed, which were differentiated by a four ...

** MB-3-J - N ** RS-27A - Delta 6925, Delta 6920-8, Delta 6925-8, Delta 6920-10, Delta 8930 ** RS-27C - Barbarian MDD, Delta 7925 ** RS-56-OBA -

Atlas II Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. The Atlas II was a direct evolution of the Atlas I, featuring longer first-stage tanks, higher-perfor ...

, IIA, IIAS *

Rocketdyne LR-101 The LR-101 is a fixed thrust, single start vernier thruster developed by Rocketdyne in the mid-to-late fifties and used in the SM-65_Atlas, Atlas, PGM-17_Thor, Thor and Delta_(rocket_family), Delta Launch_vehicle, launch vehicles until 1990. Eac ...

Vernier engine used by

and

* Rocketdyne LR105 family: ** S-4 - Super-Jupiter ** XLR105-5 - Atlas Able, Atlas B, Atlas C,

, Atlas D,

Atlas LV-3B The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a Human-rating certification, human-rated expendable launch system used as part of the United States Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit. M ...

** LR105-3 ** LR105-5 -

, Atlas E, Atlas Agena B,

, Atlas Agena D, Atlas Centaur D, Atlas SLV-3 ** LR105-7 - Atlas Agena D,

/ Agena D,

, Atlas G,

** RS-56-OSA -

, IIA, IIAS * Rocketdyne Aeolus * Rocketdyne XRS-2200, linear aerospike engine, tested for

X-33 The Lockheed Martin X-33 was a proposed uncrewed, sub-scale technology demonstrator suborbital spaceplane that was developed for a period in the 1990s. The X-33 was a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar orbital spaceplane, which was pl ...

* Rocketdyne RS-2200, linear aerospike engine, intended for

Venturestar VentureStar was a single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch system proposed by Lockheed Martin and funded by the U.S. government. The goal was to replace the Space Shuttle by developing a re-usable spaceplane that could launch satellites into orbit a ...

* Rocketdyne E-1 (

RP-1 RP-1 (Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) and similar fuels like RG-1 and T-1 are highly refined kerosene formulations used as rocket fuel. Liquid-fueled rockets that use RP-1 as fuel are known as kerolox rockets. In their engines, RP- ...

) Backup design for the

Titan I The Martin Marietta SM-68A/HGM-25A Titan I was the United States' first multistage intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), in use from 1959 until 1962. Though the SM-68A was operational for only three years, it spawned numerous follow-on mode ...

Rocketdyne F-1 The F-1 is a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne. The engine uses a gas-generator cycle developed in the United States in the late 1950s and was used in the Saturn V rocket in the 1960s and early 1970s. Five F-1 engines were used in the S ...

(

) Used by the

. *

(

) Used by the

and IB *

Rocketdyne J-2 The J-2, commonly known as Rocketdyne J-2, was a liquid-fuel rocket, liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine used on NASA's Saturn IB and Saturn V launch vehicles. Built in the United States by Rocketdyne, the J-2 burned Cryogenic fuel, cryogenic liqu ...

(

LH2 Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully liquid stat ...

) Used by both the Saturn V and Saturn IB. * Rocketdyne RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) (

) The main engine for the

, also used on the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American Super heavy-lift launch vehicle, super heavy-lift Expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis program, Artemis Moon landing progra ...

* Rocketdyne RS-27A (

) Used by the Delta II/ III and Atlas ICBM * Rocketdyne RS-56 (

) Used by the

first stage * Rocketdyne RS-68 (

) Used by the

Delta IV Delta IV was a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family. It flew 45 missions from 2002 to 2024. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) p ...

first stage * Rocketdyne XLR46-NA-2, intended for the North American NA-247 interceptor proposalLindsay Peacock, "Vigilante - Eyes of the Fleet", Air International, November 1975

Gallery

File:F-1 rocket engine.jpg, F-1 (Saturn V) File:Redstone Rocket Engine.jpg, Rocketdyne 75-110-A-6 (Redstone) File:H-1 rocket engine diagram.jpg, H-1 (Saturn I & IB) File:J-2 rocket engine.jpg, J-2 (Saturn IB & V) File:Artist concept of the J-2X rocket engine.jpg, J-2X rocket engine (concept image) File:Mercury Atlas vernier motor, Truax variant.jpg, LR101 (Mercury Atlas vernier motor) File:Stafford Air & Space Museum, Weatherford, OK, US (34).jpg, LR-105 (Atlas sustainer) File:Rocketdyne LR79 (1).jpg, LR-79 / MB3 (Thor ICBM) File:Atlas rocket engine - Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum - McMinnville, Oregon - DSC00798.jpg, LR89 (Atlas) 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, MK 70 (AGM-53 Condor) File:RL-10 rocket engine.jpg,

RL-10 The RL10 is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine built in the United States by Aerojet Rocketdyne that burns cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. Modern versions produce up to of thrust per engine in vacuum. RL10 version ...

(Centaur & DCSS) File:KSC-00pp0413.jpg,

RS-56 RS-56 (Rocket System-56) was an American liquid-fueled rocket engine, developed by Rocketdyne. RS-56 was derived from the RS-27 engine, which itself is derived from the H-1 engine used in the Saturn I and Saturn IB. Two variants of this engi ...

(Atlas II)

References

External links

Rocketdyne internet archives
(unofficial)
GenCorp, Inc.: Rocketdyne Acquisition presentation
{{Authority control 01 Rocketry Aerospace companies of the United States Former 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

History

Thor, Delta, Atlas

NASA

Downsizing

Facilities and operations

Canoga Park, California

McGregor, Texas

Neosho, Missouri

Nevada Field Laboratory

Power generation

List of engines

Gallery

See also

References

External links