Space News by Jeff Foust — June 26, 2018
Aerojet Rocketdyne and the U.S. Air Force have revised an existing agreement supporting development of a new large rocket engine to include work on an updated version of an upper stage engine.
The company announced June 25 that it signed a modification of its Rocket Propulsion System other transaction authority agreement with the Air Force to incorporate work on the RL10C-X engine. The original agreement, signed in February 2016, covered work on the AR1 booster engine.
The RL10C-X is an updated version of the RL10 currently used on the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 launch vehicles. The updated version makes used of advanced technologies, such as additive manufacturing, to lower production costs while maintaining performance and reliability.
“Aerojet Rocketdyne has extensive experience building rocket engines for most of the nation’s preeminent launch vehicles and we will continue that legacy with the RL10C-X engine,†Eileen Drake, president and chief executive of Aerojet Rocketdyne, said in a statement.
The modified agreement comes after two companies announced plans to use the RL10 in the upper stages of next-generation launch vehicles they are developing. In April, Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems) announced it selected the RL10 for the upper stage of its OmegA rocket. In May, United Launch Alliance announced it would use the RL10 in the upper stage of its Vulcan rocket, including working with Aerojet on the development of the RL10C-X.
The modified agreement, Aerojet said, continues to support for work on the AR1 engine. Drake said in the statement that development of the “first complete AR1†is in progress, with hotfire tests scheduled for 2019.
More:
http://spacenews.com/rl10-engine-added-to-air-force-agreement-with-aerojet-rocketdyne/
