Rocketdyne was an American rocket engine design and production company
headquartered in Canoga Park, located in the western San Fernando Valley of
suburban Los Angeles, in southern California.
The Rocketdyne Division was founded by North American Aviation in 1955, and was
later part of Rockwell International and Boeing. 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.
History After World War II North American
Aviation was contracted by the Defense Department to study the German V-2
missile and adapt its engine to 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. This work was considered unimportant in the 1940s and
funded at a very low level, but the start of the Korean War in 1950 changed
priorities. NAA had begun to use the Santa Susana Field Laboratory 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 Missile Division's Redstone missile design 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 Canoga Park, 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 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 Air Force Thor
missile and its Army counterpart, the Jupiter. 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. 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 engines 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 became Rockwell
International 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 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 generation experiments, radioisotope thermoelectric generators,
and solar power equipment, including the main power system for the International
Space Station. 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 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 LR89 Rocketdyne LR79, see S-3D
Rocketdyne LR101 Rocketdyne LR105
Rocketdyne Aeolus Rocketdyne S-3D
Rocketdyne E-1 Rocketdyne F-1 Used by the Saturn V.
Rocketdyne H-1 Used by the Saturn I and IB
Rocketdyne J-2 Used by both the Saturn V and Saturn IB.
Rocketdyne RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine The main engine for the Space
Shuttle. Rocketdyne RS-27A Used by the Delta
II/III and Atlas ICBM Rocketdyne RS-68 Used by the Delta IV
first stage See also
Rocketdyne engines Aerojet Rocketdyne
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Atomics International Division
Santa Susana Field Laboratory References
External links Rocketdyne internet archives]
GenCorp: Rocketdyne Acquisition presentation
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne company website