Aerojet Rocketdyne completed a key design milestone for its U.S. made AR1 rocket engine this week, which is being developed as a direct ...
Aerojet Rocketdyne completed a key design milestone for its U.S. made AR1 rocket engine this week, which is being developed as a direct replacement for the Russian-made RD-180 engines that currently power the ULA Atlas V rocket for orbiting majority of U.S. national security satellites..
During this design review, each of the 18 components and subsystems on the AR1 engine were thoroughly analyzed to ensure that each works properly and that once integrated, will function together seamlessly.
With this review successfully completed, the company will continue with AR1 development in preparation for full-scale engine testing in 2017, and delivery of a flight-qualified engine ready for certification by 2019.
To date, AR1 has undergone more than 155 staged-combustion tests, built and successfully hot-fire tested additively manufactured components, conducted turbomachinery and valve tests, and began procurements for long-lead items.
Aerojet has earlier delivered large liquid rocket engines, like the RS-25 for NASA’s Space Launch System and the RS-68 for the Delta IV launch vehicle.
The AR1 engine is powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants that use an advanced oxidizer-rich staged combustion cycle to generate 500,000 pounds of thrust. A set of two AR1 engines will generate one million pounds of thrust for the Atlas V launch vehicle.
Configurable to multiple launch vehicles, AR1 is also a booster propulsion option for the proposed Vulcan launch system and other launch vehicles in development. The AR1 engine incorporates the latest advances in rocket engine technology, materials science and modern manufacturing techniques to deliver an affordable and reliable booster engine.
