Rocketdyne

Rocketdyne

Industry	Rocket engines
Fate	Acquired
Successor(s)	Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (2005)
Headquarters	Canoga Park, California, United States
Parent	North American Aviation Rockwell International Boeing

Rocketdyne is a Rocket engine design and production company headquartered in Canoga Park, California, United States. The company was related to North American Aviation for most of its history. NAA merged with Rockwell International, which was then bought by Boeing in December, 1996. In February, 2005, Boeing sold the company to Pratt & Whitney, who merged it with Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion to form Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR).

History

Rocketdyne was formed by North American Aviation (NAA) in the immediate post-WW II era to study the German V-2 missile and adapt its engine to SAE measurements and US construction details. Rocketdyne 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. This work was considered unimportant in the 1940s and funded at a very low level, but the opening of the Korean War in 1950 changed priorities. Navaho ran into continual difficulties and was canceled in the late 1950s when Redstone missile design (essentially a much larger 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.

In 1967, NAA and Rocketdyne merged with the Rockwell Corporation to form North American Rockwell, later part of Rockwell International.

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 Jupiter missile design, essentially a development of the Redstone, and was later selected for the considerably more capable Thor missile. An even larger design, the LR89/LR105, was used on the Atlas missile. 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 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 manned spacecraft, and in the much-employed Atlas-Agena and Atlas-Centaur rockets. The Atlas V is still in manufacture and use.

NASA

Rocketdyne also became the major supplier for NASA'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 booster main stage. Five F-1 engines powered the Saturn V's, S-IC, first stage, while five J-2 rockets powered its S-II second stage, and one J-2 the S-IVB third stages. By 1965, Rocketdyne built the vast majority of US rocket engines, excepting those of the Titan rocket, 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 Space Shuttle Main Engine. 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, merged with the Rockwell Corporation in 1966 to form the North American Rockwell company (which several years later became Rockwell International), with Rocketdyne as a major division.

Downsizing

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Division, Canoga Park

During continued downsizing in the 1980s and '90s, 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. The transaction was completed on August 2, 2005.[1] As of 2012, the president of the company was Jim Maser, who succeeded Byron Wood at the helm.

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 generation experiments, radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), and solar power equipment, including the main power system for the International Space Station^{[citation needed]}. In the sale to Pratt & Whitney, the Power Systems division of Rocketdyne was transferred to Hamilton Sundstrand, another subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation.

List of engines

F-1 rocket engine

Some of the engines developed by Rocketdyne are:

• H-1 (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Saturn I, Ib, Jupiter, and some Delta rockets
• F-1 (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Saturn V.
• J-2 (LH2/LOX) Used by both the Saturn V and Saturn IB.
• Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) (LH2/LOX) The main engine for the Space Shuttle
• RS-68 (LH2/LOX) Used by the Delta IV first stage
• RS-27A (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Delta II/III and Atlas ICBM

See also

• Santa Susana Field Laboratory

External links

• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne company website
• Rocketdyne internet archives (unofficial)