United Launch Alliance has positioned an Atlas V rocket on a vertical integration platform at Cape Canaveral in Florida in preparation for a scheduled launch in February, Spaceflight Nowreported Monday.
Aerojet Rocketdyne has handed over to NASA four rocket engines that are slated for integration into the core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System rocket.
Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, told Ars Technica in an interview published Wednesday that the company expects to launch a national security payload aboard the ULA-built Vulcan rocket in 2022. He said ULA plans to perform certification flights in 2021 under the launch services agreement with the U.S. Air Force. “And we intend […] More
Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed hot-fire tests of a RL10 engine thrust chamber assembly that was built using three-dimensional printing technology. The company said Wednesday the latest test series follows an initial demonstration of a 3D-printed copper alloy thrust chamber and nickel alloy main injector last year. Eileen Drake, president and CEO of Aerojet Rocketdyne, said hot-fire tests […] More
United Launch Alliance has selected Aerojet Rocketdyne to provide an upper stage engine technology to help power ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. The space launch company said Friday Aerojet Rocketdyne will build RL10 propulsion systems and develop an RL10C-X variant as part of a 10-year partnership agreement between the companies. “Key determining factors to our selection included price and […] More
Aerojet Rocketdyne has tested an engine for NASA‘s second exploration mission at the space agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The RS-25 engine, dubbed as E2063, was fired up for 500 seconds in a move to evaluate the system’s capacity to support the EM-2 exploration mission, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Thursday. RS-25 engines will continuously fire […] More
Aerojet Rocketdyne has conducted hot-fire tests on a full-scale thrust chamber assembly the company built using a three-dimensional printing method that incorporated selective laser melting technology. The company said Monday that the Defense Production Act Title III program management office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base facilitated tests of the 3D-printed thrust chamber for the RL10 rocket engine. RL10’s copper thrust chamber will replace […] More