Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed a critical design review of the company-built AR1 rocket engine. The company said Monday it aims to obtain flight certification for the AR1 technology in 2019 to help the Defense Department move away from foreign-made engines. Independent government and industry experts attended the review, which assessed whether AR1’s design meets performance requirements ahead of full-scale manufacturing, Aerojet Rocketdyne added. The […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has run hot-fire tests to validate the design of the AR1 rocket engine’s preburner. The company said Thursday the preburner will help drive the turbomachinery of AR1 engine and was built through modern techniques such as three-dimensional printing. Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of advanced space and launch programs and strategy at Aerojet Rocketdyne, said the preburner features the company’s Mondaloy […] More

Sierra Nevada Corporation has awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne a contract to provide an electrical power system for the former’s Dream Chaser commercial spacecraft designated by NASA to transport cargo to and from the International Space Station. Aerojet Rocketdyne said Tuesday it will design, create, test and install the electrical power system onto Dream Chaser as well as provide power conversion and […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne will work with the U.S. Air Force develop standards for the qualification of 3-D printed rocket engine components under a $6 million contract awarded as part of the Booster Propulsion Technology Maturation broad agency announcement. The company said Tuesday it will work to leverage its experience with additive manufacturing processes and technologies to support the service branch’s […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has concluded a series of tests on a three-dimensional printed propulsion system to check engine throughput and propellant tank expulsions as the program moved forward to the qualification phase. The company said Monday it conducted a hot-fire test of the hydrazine integrated propulsion system on the MPS-120 CubeSat High-Impulse Adaptable Modular Propulsion System to demonstrate functions that meet Technology Readiness Level 6 and Manufacturing […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., announced recently that they have completed a study on the development of a common upper stage service for NASA, designed for enhanced performance of NASA Launch Services and paving the way for additional missions. The new common upper stage has the potential to be integrated onto several spacecraft–including […] More

Aerojet Rocketdyne has demonstrated a propulsive device NASA plans to use with a key component of the agency's future Gateway lunar outpost.

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NASA‘s Glenn Research Center has named Aerojet Rocketdyne the “Large Business Prime Contractor of the Year” for the company’s development of the gridded ion thruster system for the Next Evolutionary Xenon Thruster-Commercial propulsion technology. The aerospace and defense firm said Monday its work on the system is part of an $18 million contract from 2015 for the completion of NEXT-C and […] More