Tag: Aerojet Rocketdyne
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Boeing rejects bid to buy ULA as engine race heats up
File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Credit: ULA Boeing said Wednesday it has turned down an offer from Aerojet Rocketdyne to buy United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that operates the Atlas and Delta rocket fleets. The decision keeps ULA’s plan to select a…
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Decision looms on when to introduce new SLS upper stage
Artist’s concept of the Space Launch System’s upgraded upper stage with four RL10 engines. NASA officials want to introduce the new upper stage on the first crewed SLS launch in 2021, if budgets allow. Credit: Boeing NASA officials are waiting to see if Congress adds funding to the agency’s budget next year to kick-start development…
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Shuttle-era rocket engine primed for test firing
NASA plans to fire up a space shuttle-era rocket engine in Mississippi on Thursday for nearly nine minutes to validate upgrades to the powerplant for the Space Launch System, a new mega-rocket under development to boost astronauts on missions to deep space. The test set to begin at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) will last…
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Rocket engine fires up in latest test for behemoth booster
NASA test-fired an RS-25 development engine Thursday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now A hydrogen-fueled rocket engine ignited with a bone-rattling sonic wave Thursday at NASA’s test facility in Southern Mississippi, throttling up to more than a half-million pounds of thrust to verify upgrades to the space shuttle’s main engines…
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New details emerge about electric propulsion experiment aboard X-37B
Credit: Air Force CAPE CANAVERAL — All systems are now “go” for launch of the Air Force’s X-37B mystery spaceplane on May 20 from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. Officials had delayed the X-37B launch by two weeks — from May 6 to no earlier than May 20 — due to an undisclosed…
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Delta 4 rocket evolving to upgraded main engine
Credit: Carleton Bailie/Boeing CAPE CANAVERAL — When the next Delta 4 rocket flies in July, as well as all future ones to come, the enhanced RS-68A main engine will power the boosters off the launch pad. This week’s successful Delta 4 launch that put a new GPS satellite into orbit marked the final launch of…
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Debut flight of rail-guided space launcher slips to October
A mock-up of the Super Strypi. Credit: Sandia National Laboratories The first flight of a new rail-guided satellite launch system from a military missile range in Hawaii has been delayed until late October due to problems with the rocket’s first stage motor, according to a U.S. Air Force official. The rail-launched Super Strypi launcher is…
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Orbital ATK targets resumption of Antares launches in March 2016
An Antares rocket lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia, in July 2014. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Space station resupply missions launched from Virginia’s Eastern Shore are set to resume in March 2016, after Orbital ATK integrates newly-built rocket engines into the Ukrainian-made booster stage of the company’s commercial Antares rocket and puts it through an on-pad…
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NASA kicks off SLS engine testing in Mississippi
The RS-25 engine fires up for a 500-second test Jan. 9 at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Credit: NASA A powerful space shuttle-era rocket engine ignited for more than eight minutes on a test stand in Mississippi last week, kicking off hotfire testing for NASA’s Space Launch System mega-rocket after contamination…
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Record-setting Atlas launches with new Centaur engine
Credit: ULA A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket put on a display of power, sound and light Friday evening at Vandenberg Air Force Base in launching a clandestine national security payload, then successfully debuted a new upper stage engine as it flew over the horizon. “This is the most powerful Atlas vehicle ever launched…