Aerojet Rocketdyne has conducted a hot-fire test of an engine technology the company built for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. The company said Tuesday it performed the RS-25 engine test at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and assessed the performance of the main combustion chamber during the 319-second engine fire test attended by NASA Administrator […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne and its partner Teledyne have delivered an electric generator system that would help power NASA’s Mars 2020 rover to an Energy Department facility. The Idaho National Laboratory will fuel, test and evaluate the flight readiness of the the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Tuesday. MMRTG is designed to convert plutonium-238 heat into electricity to power the […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has concluded two hot-fire tests of air-launch motors at the Air Force Research Laboratory, under the firm’s advanced tactical booster program. The company said Monday it designed the solid rocket motors to simulate extreme cold- and hot-soak launch conditions. The tested motors demonstrated the capacity to accelerate vehicles under extreme operational temperatures. Aerojet […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has started a series of 10 firing tests of an engine designed for use on Boeing’s Phantom Express unmanned vehicle as part of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Experimental Spaceplane program, SpaceNews reported Tuesday. The company performs the 100-second test firings of the AR-22 engine at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has received a $69.8 million modification under the company’s “other transaction” agreement with the U.S. Air Force to produce engines for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The Defense Department said Friday it expects the engine manufacturer to complete work on the AR1 booster engine on Dec. 31, 2019, and the RL10CX upper stage […] 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

Sacramento, Calif.-based firm Aerojet Rocketdyne has tested a new in-space engine that will potentially be used for future robotic operations on the moon. Aerojet Rocketdyne said Wednesday the ISE-100 engine accumulated 75 individual tests, 774 pulses and over 500 seconds of hot-fire time during the evaluation period. ISE-100 will now enter the certification phase, which […] 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 produced and delivered engines that Boeing will integrate into spacecraft the latter company is building under NASA‘s Commercial Crew Program. Boeing will install MR-104J engines on the CST-100 Starliner crew module inside the  Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Thursday. Each Starliner capsule is designed for reuse up […] More

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has conducted a test to validate the sympathetic reaction of a new safety-oriented explosive co-developed with Aerojet Rocketdyne. The MNX-770 Mod 1 explosive is being developed for use in 500-pound BLU-111 and 1000-pound BLU-110 general purpose bombs, which are also referred to as the Mk-82 and the Mk-83, respectively, the company said Thursday. Aerojet […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne and the U.S. Air Force have begun to renegotiate an agreement over the development of the company’s rocket engine, SpaceNews reported Friday. The company develops the AR1 engine under a potential $115.3 million “other transaction” agreement the service branch awarded in 2016. The service’s space and missile systems center said Aerojet Rocketdyne has requested to […] More

NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne have tested the fourth and last engine controller for the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket, called Exploration Mission-2. Aerojet Rocketdyne said Thursday its RS-25 engine was test fired for 365 seconds to qualify the engine controller, which works to facilitate communications between the engine and SLS as […] More