Новости Aerojet Rocketdyne

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Salo

Цитироватьfrigate пишет:
Aviation Week & Space Technology 9 June 2014 article " AR1 vs. Raptor "
New Rocket program will likely pit kerosene against methane, page 33
 
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

http://aviationweek.com/defense/aerojet-rocketdyne-targets-25-million-pair-ar-1-engines
ЦитироватьAerojet Rocketdyne Targets $25 Million Per Pair For AR-1 Engines
Jun 3, 2014 Amy Butler | AWIN First

Aerojet Rocketdyne is targeting a cost of $20-25 million for each pair of new AR-1 engines as the company continues to lobby the government to fund an all-new, U.S.-sourced rocket propulsion system, says Scott Seymour, president and CEO of the company's parent, GenCorp.

Including legacy systems and various risk-reduction projects, Aerojet Rocketdyne has spent roughly $300 million working on technologies that will feed into the AR-1, Seymour said during a June 3 roundtable with Aviation Week editors. The effort to build a new, 500,000-lb. thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene propulsion system would take about four years from contract award and cost roughly $800 million to $1 billion.

Such an engine is eyed for United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas V rocket as well as Orbital's Antares and, possibly, Space Exploration Technology's Falcon 9 v1.1.

This is roughly the same price cited for the cost of standing up U.S. co-production of the RD-180 engine, which is manufactured by NPO Energomash of Russia and sold to ULA for the Atlas V through a joint venture with Pratt & Whitney.

"We certainly believe [the AR-1 will be] on a par – if not better – than the performance of the RD-180. We also believe it is going to be more affordable," Seymour said. "With each launch vehicle having it its own engine, trying to get any kind of economic buy quantity has been a struggle for us. We really believe with the AR-1 approach, we have a multitude of applications for the engine."

SpaceX's Falcon 9v1.1 is powered by the company's own Merlin 1D engine, but Seymour says he hopes the AR-1 is competitive enough in pricing to earn a place even on this platform. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has focused his company on vertical integration to support quick development timelines.

ULA would not release the per-unit cost of the RD-180 for the Atlas V. SpaceX did not reply to requests on its Merlin engine price; nine Merlin 1Ds are used per Falcon 9 v1.1 launch.

Seymour says the company envisions an engine that can mate with multiple boosters, helping to increase the production volume and, eventually, keep pricing and sourcing stable. "I believe it brings the engines in the space industry more toward the model of aircraft engines ... the destination for those engines are any multitude of aircraft applications," he said.

Eventually, Seymour envisions this engine could be a foundation for NASA's Space Launch System rocket bound for Mars, though he did not give details on the path to get there.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has put its own internal research and development funding toward pieces of the system, but is awaiting funding for a government project, likely to come in fiscal 2016, Seymour said. Despite a tight fiscal environment in Washington, momentum for a new hydrocarbon engine has grown substantially in recent weeks due largely to an aversion of lawmakers to continue buying Russian-made engines in light of Russia's annexation of Crimea.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

#42
http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/40840house-appropriators-recommend-220-million-for-rocket-engine
ЦитироватьHouse Appropriators Recommend $220 Million for Rocket Engine
By Mike Gruss | Jun. 9, 2014


According to a House Appropriations defense subcommittee report, the new engine (to replace the RD-180, above) should be ready to make a first flight by 2022. Credit: ULA photo

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations defense subcommittee, following the lead of authorization legislation already approved on the House floor, is recommending that the U.S. Defense Department spend $220 million next year to develop an American alternative to the Russian-made RD-180 engine that powers the first stage of United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket.

In marking up its version of the defense spending bill during a closed session May 30, the subcommittee also provides the funding necessary to continue buying GPS 3 navigation satellites at a rate of two per year, whereas the U.S. Air Force was hoping to bring that rate down to one per year for 2015.

The subcommittee's draft forms the backbone of the defense spending bill that is expected to be marked up by the full House Appropriations Committee June 10. A copy of the report accompanying the draft legislation was obtained by SpaceNews.

According to the report, the new engine should be ready to make a first flight by 2022.

"The Committee believes that the United States should rely on domestically manufactured launch vehicles as the foundation for access to space and is concerned about the reliance of some national security space launches on rocket engines produced in Russia," the report says.

The full House of Representatives approved similar language on a slightly faster timeline in its version of the national defense authorization bill in May.

The appropriations bill also requires the Defense Secretary to submit a report on "a risk reduction and development plan for a next-generation liquid rocket engine program."

A recent report on mitigating a loss of access to the RD-180, prepared for the Air Force by a blue ribbon panel led by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Mitch Mitchell, made a similar recommendation.

Momentum for developing a large liquid-fueled rocket engine in the United States has been building rapidly in Congress and elsewhere since Russia's annexation of Crimea and continued threat to the rest of eastern Ukraine. The RD-180-powered Atlas 5 is one of the Pentagon's two main satellite-launching workhorses, but a top Russian government official has threatened to bar the use of Russian-made engines for launches of U.S. national security satellites.

The subcommittee's draft report also calls for an additional $30 million for the Air Force to continue buying long-lead parts for two positioning, navigation and timing satellites each year.

The Air Force had planned on slowing its procurement of GPS 3 navigation satellites beginning in the 2015 budget year, primarily because earlier-generation GPS satellites are lasting longer in orbit than expected, service officials have said.

"GPS III is an acquisition program based on efficiencies gained through larger, predictable buys with insertion of evolutionary capability improvements," the report says. "However, the budget request reduces funding for future acquisitions to one satellite per year, increasing the overall life-cycle cost of the program."

Currently Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver is under contract to build eight GPS 3 satellites, which are designed to be more accurate and less vulnerable to enemy jamming than previous generations of GPS craft.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @Gruss_SN
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

frigate

Aviation Week & Space Technology, 16 June 2014 p.21 Lost in Space
"Селена, луна. Селенгинск, старинный город в Сибири: город лунных ракет." Владимир Набоков

Salo

http://spacenews.com/article/military-space/40951administration-opposes-funding-rd-180-replacement-in-defense-bill
ЦитироватьAdministration Opposes Funding RD-180 Replacement in Defense Bill
By Jeff Foust | Jun. 18, 2014

WASHINGTON — As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to debate the fiscal year 2015 defense appropriations bill, the White House has come out in opposition to one of the bill's space-related provisions: $220 million to start development of a large rocket engine to replace the Russian-built RD-180.

"The Administration objects to the unrequested $220 million for a new rocket engine," the Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) about the defense appropriations bill, released late June 17, states. "This approach prematurely commits significant resources and would not reduce our reliance on Russian engines for at least a decade."

The SAP also cites an unnamed "independent study" that claims development of such an engine would take eight years and cost $1.5 billion, plus "another $3 billion needed to develop a suitable launch vehicle." (The SAP does not identify this study by name; the summary of the "Mitchell Report" about the RD-180 that leaked in May does not include those specific cost estimates, although it does state a new liquid oxygen/hydrocarbon engine should be ready by fiscal year 2022, or eight years from now.)

The SAP indicates that the Obama administration is looking at other options to develop a new large domestic rocket engine. "With a goal of promptly reducing our reliance on Russian technology, the Administration is evaluating several cost-effective options including public-private partnerships with multiple awards that will drive innovation, stimulate the industrial base, and reduce costs through competition," it states.

At an event hosted by the Atlantic Council here June 13, William A. LaPlante, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, said no decision had been made on whether to develop a large hydrocarbon engine. He added that the Air Force was open to alternative approaches, including the use of public-private partnerships, to develop one if the service decided to go forward with that effort.
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che wi

Aerojet Rocketdyne Completes J-2X Testing
http://www.rocket.com/article/aerojet-rocketdyne-completes-j-2x-testing

ЦитироватьSACRAMENTO, Calif., June 26, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aerojet Rocketdyne, a GenCorp (NYSE:GY) company, recently completed its final J-2X test series at NASA's Stennis Space Center.

Over a period of three years, Aerojet Rocketdyne teams manufactured, assembled and tested four newly developed engine test articles that achieved an accumulated duration of nearly five hours firing time and demonstrated full power operation for twice its designed life service. Delivering 30 percent more thrust and five percent more performance than the J-2 Apollo-era engine, upon which it is based, the J-2X is the highest performing human-rated upper-stage engine to be developed in nearly 40 years.

"With J-2X, we were able to drive down the time needed to take a new rocket engine to 100 percent power level in testing, from 651 days to just 29, by integrating modern design, analysis and test practices with decades of experience gained on multiple engine development programs," said Aerojet Rocketdyne President Warren M. Boley, Jr. "That kind of knowledge isn't retained anywhere else in the industry and it demonstrates that we know how to design an engine that will work the first time."

The J-2X is a liquid-oxygen/liquid-hydrogen fueled engine that is designed to start at altitude and re-start in space as part of a second or third stage of a large, multi-stage launch vehicle. With its full nozzle extension installed, the J-2X measures more than 15 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter at its base and weighs approximately 5,400 pounds. With a vacuum thrust of 294,000 lbs., the engine is designed to help loft heavy payloads—such as habitats, landers and in-space modules—beyond low-Earth orbit.

"We had to modernize the J-2 engine to increase its power level and performance, so we had a good challenge on our hands," said Aerojet Rocketdyne's J-2X Director and Program Manager, Walt Janowski. "No part of this engine went untouched. We looked closely at each part to make sure it met modern standards and human-rated requirements."

The completed J-2X testing provides direct benefits to Aerojet Rocketdyne's RS-25 test program, including understanding performance of the test stands and implementing new methods to record and interpret engine performance data. The RS-25 engines also feature a modernized engine controller, successfully demonstrated on J-2X, for controlling start and shutdown valve sequencing and health monitoring control functions.

The J-2X engine is one of several options being considered to power the upper stage of NASA's future 130-metric-ton Space Launch System (SLS). The only vehicle with the mass, volume and speed required for human missions beyond low-Earth orbit, SLS will launch crew and cargo to deep space destinations.

/.../

Salo

#47
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1407/07engine/#.U7rhuED-5eI
ЦитироватьEnthusiasm wanes for quick start to new engine program
BY STEPHEN CLARK[
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 7, 2014

 
With the Obama administration, NASA and industry leaders preaching caution -- and no sign Russian rocket engine exports will end -- the rush to replace the Russian RD-180 engine used to power billions of dollars of U.S. military and scientific research satellites into space has cooled in recent weeks.
 
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral. Credit: United Launch Alliance
 
 
Спойлер
Bills drawn up in both houses of Congress include funding lines to kick-start development of new rocket engine, but Congress has not sent a budget bill to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature.
There is no sign of an imminent cutoff to the supply of Russian rocket engines, despite a proclamation from Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin in May that engine exports for U.S. military satellite launches would end.
Rogozin made the announcement in a May 13 press conference, but U.S. officials have said a shipment of two RD-180 engines is due to arrive in the United States in August with no indication of any legal, logistical or regulatory hurdles.
The RD-180 engine powers the first stage of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, one of two launchers that put the bulk of the U.S. government's national security payloads into orbit.
Despite bipartisan agreement in the House and Senate, which proposed funneling millions of dollars into an engine development program beginning next year to eventually replace the RD-180, the White House's Office of Management and Budget released a policy statement June 17 calling for a more measured approach to the propulsion predicament.
The White House statement was released in response to the House Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2015, which includes $220 million set aside for rocket engine development. The Senate version of the Defense Department's fiscal year 2015 budget includes $100 million for a similar purpose.
Legislators still have to work out the differences in the bills before sending it to President Obama to be signed into law.
"This approach prematurely commits significant resources and would not reduce our reliance on Russian engines for at least a decade," officials wrote in the White House policy statement.
Defense authorization bills penned by the House and Senate direct the Pentagon to work with NASA to jointly manage the engine development under a commercial procurement scheme.
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden used similar language as the White House policy paper in a June 18 exchange with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"I think it's premature to think about a new rocket engine," Bolden said. "We've been discussing this quite a bit ... Our focus is on access to space. How do we provide routine, reliable access to space?"
Bolden said it is up to industry to provide transportation for missions to low Earth orbit, citing the space agency's agreements with companies flying resupply missions to the International Space Station as an example of a successful partnership between government and industry.
"When you get focused on a specific engine, you may ask yourself then, OK, what vehicle are you going to put it on and everything else? NASA's approach is let's focus on access to space," Bolden said.
The White House cited a recent study commissioned by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that concluded it would take up to eight years and cost up to $1.5 billion to design and test a new rocket engine in the same class as the Russian-built RD-180, which uses an efficient closed-cycle staged combustion architecture and generates 860,000 pounds of thrust at sea level.
The Defense Department study committee -- including incumbent and retired officials from NASA, the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office -- wrote in a summary report obtained by Spaceflight Now that it would cost up to $3 billion to field a new launch vehicle to use the U.S.-made engine.
The panel recommended the U.S. government begin paying companies to develop a new engine.
Built near Moscow by NPO Energomash, the RD-180 engine is fueled by RP-1, a grade of highly-refined kerosene, and cryogenic liquid oxygen. There is no U.S.-built hydrocarbon-fueled engine in the same performance class as the RD-180.
ULA's other rocket, the Delta 4, has a hydrogen-fueled U.S.-made Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68 engine on its first stage.
Instead of launching full-scale development in fiscal year 2015, which begins Oct. 1, the Obama administration says it is "evaluating several cost-effective options including public-private partnerships with multiple awards that will drive innovation, stimulate the industrial base, and reduce costs through competition."
The paper said the White House's policy is aimed at "promptly reducing our reliance on Russian technology," adding it will work with Congress once the White House completes its analysis of the engine issue.
United Launch Alliance announced in June it is spending internal funds for "early studies" on a U.S.-built hydrocarbon-fueled alternative to the RD-180 engine.
Michael Gass, ULA's president and CEO, said the company's contracts with multiple U.S. rocket engine builders will help officials refine concepts for rocket engines and a potential new launch vehicle to use the U.S. replacement for the RD-180.
"To just design an engine without looking at the systems effect to understand the market, [and] the satellites, and optimize around that is foolhardy," Gass said. "You've got to have some end goal in mind when you design a propulsion system for a launch vehicle, so we're making sure we do that."
 
File photo of Michael Gass, ULA's president and CEO. Credit: Space Foundation
 
 The results of the studies will "mature" the technical concepts for new U.S.-built engine options, plus help ULA make the business case for continued investment by providing cost estimates.
"All of the money we're spending today is to position ourselves to respond to our own business needs, as well as potentially working with the government in doing something that we all support, which is to move to state-of-the-art propulsion technology in this country," Gass said.
ULA has not identified which companies it is paying for the propulsion studies. The company is looking at single- and dual-engine concepts for the first stage of a new launch vehicle based on the Atlas 5, Gass said.
"When you change main propulsion, everything above changes," Gass said. "We always have a little joke between us and the propulsion houses: Which is the chicken and which is the egg?"
Gass stressed the importance of continuing the Atlas rocket line, even if it comes with a new main engine and has a "new name or new model number."
"The beauty of the Atlas and Delta product is that it has that [nearly] 120-year heritage," Gass said. "All that experience, all that knowledge is embedded in our system design and expertise, so we would want to make sure that we continue to emphasize that when we put forward a product, it's coming with all that heritage."
Gass estimated it would take five-to-seven years to develop a new engine, depending on funding and technical risks.
If ULA selects a new engine, engineers could introduce the powerplant in evolutionary upgrades to the Atlas rocket while continuing to fly RD-180 engines on the legacy model of the Atlas 5.
ULA could opt to keep using RD-180 engines, even though Gass says company officials "believe now is the right time for a domestic investment" in a U.S. alternative.
Officials said ULA faces a deadline some time next year to decide whether to extend its RD-180 engine contract with RD AMROSS, a joint venture between United Technologies Corp. and NPO Energomash.
There are currently 15 RD-180 engines in the United States, with 29 more engines due to arrive from Russia through 2017. A decision on a contract extension is needed next year to ensure no gap in engine deliveries in 2018 and beyond.
"From our perspective, we are covering all bases, and putting plans in place to address any potential outcome," Gass said. "We are fully committed to putting in place a near-term, mid-term and long- term plan to continue to launch our reliable Atlas 5 into the next decade and beyond."
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said she favors public investment in propulsion technologies, but not a traditional government procurement of a new engine.
SpaceX is working on sub-scale hardware for a methane-fueled million-pound thrust Raptor engine, but the company has not publicly disclosed when the engine could be ready for flight tests.
According to Shotwell, SpaceX is moving away from kerosene-fueled engines like the Merlin powerplant on the Falcon 9 rocket. For higher-thrust engines in the class of the RD-180, SpaceX wants to switch to methane fuel and liquid oxygen.
"I don't know whether that's exactly the right choice," Shotwell said, referring to building an engine to directly replace the RD-180. "Investing in liquid propulsion technologies is a great choice for sure, certainly on components that can be used to build whatever engine the propulsion community finds a market for."
Shotwell said SpaceX would be interested in government funding for early-phase risk reduction projects. In a similar vein, SpaceX received $396 million from NASA to go along with private capital to design and demonstrate the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station.
"I think investing in the community is a great idea," Shotwell said. "I'd like to see it more on the component development -- technology development -- side," Shotwell said.
She said elements of SpaceX's Raptor engine could be applied to other propulsion projects.
"There are so many questions unanswered," Gass said, responding to a question on the White House's policy statement on liquid-fueled propulsion. "What's the acquisition strategy? What's the approach? What's the definition of a public-private partnership?"
ULA is advocating for a long-term strategy, accounting for market demand with an eye toward a next-generation launcher that could incorporate a new U.S.-built liquid-fueled engine, assuming such a propulsion system is built.
"It shouldn't be a field of dreams kind of approach, [assuming] if you build it they will come," Gass said.
 
File photo of an Atlas 5 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Credit: United Launch Alliance
 
 "You can build an engine and totally miss the mark in terms of our national security needs," Gass said. "So there's a right sort of reticence. Let's not just jump off on an engine."
Gass described a public-private partnership that would innovate and stimulate technological advancements as a "right first step."
But he said officials eventually must decide on an approach and a new engine design, whether its development is funded primarily through government or private money.
"You can't have hundreds of options," Gass said. "I'll remind people this is a worldwide market, and it's not [just] companies competing. In some cases, it's country versus country, and we as a nation need to use our investment smartly."
ULA is lobbying for a government investment in domestic engine technologies, but the rocket maker is lobbying against an abrupt stop to the use of Russian RD-180 engines, a position favored by Sen. John McCain, who ins erted language in to a Senate bill to prohibit new engine purchases from Russia for national security satellite launches.
"You wouldn't want to cut it off before a new engine is certified," Gass said. "There are some people that are trying to encourage the nation to just have a date certain [to stop using RD-180 engines]. A date certain leads to potentially wrong decisions or inefficient use of investment dollars."
While ULA says it is willing to spearhead development a new rocket engine with private funds -- if there is a business case. Gass cautioned the "risk-averse" nature of commercial endeavors could lead companies to avoid more challenging engine concepts that could lead to innovations in efficiency, cost, or components.
"We're not afraid of doing it as a fully [commercial] investment if that's what is necessary to meet the market, but obviously that's a more challenging business case," Gass said. "It will also drive the nation to potentially less advancement in propulsion technology."
[свернуть]
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

Маловато будет:
ЦитироватьThe full text of the panel's spending bill has not yet been released. But the measure also includes $25 million for work on a new rocket engine, according to a July 15 press release from the committee. One of ULA's two main rockets, the Atlas 5, is powered by a Russian-built engine whose availability has come into question following Russia's incursion into neighboring Ukraine.
"America's access to space should not depend on a state-owned foreign [company], which has dreams of empire at the cost of its innocent neighbors," Durbin said.
The $25 million figure is significantly less than has been recommended by other congressional defense committees. 
The House of Representatives has approved $220 million for a similar program in authorization and funding bills. The Senate Armed Services Committee, meanwhile, set aside $100 million for a new engine in its version of the defense authorization bill.
The White House has cautioned against rushing to develop a new rocket engine and estimated that such a project could cost $4.5 billion and take eight years.
 
Follow Mike on Twitter: @Gruss_SN
http://spacenews.com/article/military-space/41270us-air-force-seeks-bids-for-nro-launch
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Salo

#49
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1408/03rs25/#.U-CK7KOP3IU
ЦитироватьSpace shuttle relics ready to roar again in Mississippi
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: August 3, 2014
 
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. -- The space shuttle's hydrogen-fueled rocket engines will soon roar again after receiving upgrades to fly on the Space Launch System, a heavy-lifting mega-rocket NASA hopes will take astronauts on journeys farther than humans have ever traveled.
 
An RS-25 engine is installed on a test stand in Mississippi to begin testing for NASA's Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. Credit: NASA
 
Спойлер
The first unmanned SLS flight is set for the end of 2017, at the earliest, but testing is already beginning to wring out the rocket's engines.
Each Space Launch System flight will use four of the space shuttle main engines on its core stage. Two strap-on rocket boosters, derived from the solid rocket motors that flew on the space shuttle, will help the massive launch vehicle get off the ground.
Astronauts will strap into an Orion capsule on top of the second SLS flight around 2021, launching a crew beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. The mission could visit a captured asteroid near the moon, assuming NASA's proposed asteroid retrieval mission is technically and politically successful by then.
With an initial version capable of lifting 70 tons into low Earth orbit -- and rockets producing 8.4 million pounds of thrust at liftoff -- the Space Launch System will be the most powerful booster ever built, according to NASA.
NASA kept parts for 16 shuttle rocket engines after the program's last mission in 2011. Officials shipped the powerplants from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Stennis Space Center, NASA's primary rocket engine test facility in southern Mississippi, for storage and upgrades for the Space Launch System.
In parallel with the engine modifications, construction crews are beefing up a mammoth test stand at Stennis for the most powerful liquid-fueled rocket engine test firing conducted in the United States in nearly 50 years.
Some time in 2016, the massive core stage of the first SLS vehicle will be hoisted into the test stand for at least two "mission duty cycle" test firings, each lasting more than 8 minutes with four rocket engines, sending a thunderous sound wave across southwest Mississippi.
But engineers first plan a series of single-engine ground test firings to check out the upgraded space shuttle main engines. When fitted with upgrades for SLS flights, the engines are called RS-25s.
The first such engine was mounted on the A-1 test stand here July 17, kicking off a multi-year campaign aimed at ensuring the Space Launch System's main stage propulsion system is ready for flight.
The used powerplant, designated Engine No. 0525, is a pathfinder for SLS flight engines that will be tested here.
Engine No. 0525 will never fly. It is a holdover from the space shuttle program, which used it for checkouts of new components before they were introduced for real launches.
The engine has a similar purpose for the Space Launch System.
"It's going to get a new engine control unit installed on it, and the main objective of the test series that we're going to run is to test out this new controller," said Gary Benton, NASA's RS-25 rocket engine test project manager. "It will be on stand for four, five or six months, or however long it takes to get through the test series. There will be two of these engineering model controllers that get tested, and that will lead to the design of the new controllers that are actually going to fly."
Benton said the engine will start "hotfire" testing about six-to-eight weeks after it was moved to the test stand.
The primary change to the shuttle-era engines is a new controller, a computer avionics box that is similar to units already used on the RS-68 engine, a disposable hydrogen-fueled powerplant built by Aerojet Rocketdyne, the same company that holds the RS-25 contract with NASA.
"We can save money there and have a common supplier building these parts for multiple engines," Benton said.
Supplied by Honeywell, the controller is the brain of the engine, serving as the intermediary between the rocket's flight computer and the engine's myriad parts.
"It's actually telling the engine valves what position to be in, how fast to open or close," Benton said. "It's looking at sensors on the engine and determining what it needs to do. It's controlling everything on the engine -- purges, valve positions, all that kind of stuff."
The RS-25 engine generates 418,000 pounds of thrust at maximum power at sea level, according to Aerojet Rocketdyne's website. The engines consume cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.
If all goes according to plan, the sound of a shuttle main engine should again reverberate across the pine forests here by the fall.
"We're excited to get back into testing," Benton said. "It's a very powerful engine, and we're ready to get back into testing them again."
 
Artist's concept of the Space Launch System. Credit: NASA
 
 Engine No. 0525 will complete several full-duration firings -- each nearly 9 minutes long -- to check out the two engine controllers, along with new flow meters and other hardware upgrades installed on the A-1 test stand since the end of the space shuttle program.
"All of the tests planned are full-duration tests. Those will tests of 500-some odd seconds with over 4,000 seconds planned total," Benton said.
Then engineers will install each of the four engines slated to fly on the first Space Launch System mission into the A-1 test stand for a series of acceptance tests to verify they are ready for flight.
The engines assigned to the first SLS mission, called Exploration Mission-1, powered space shuttle crews into orbit on more than a dozen flights.
The engines tapped for the first SLS mission, including their flight heritage, are:
    [/li]
  • Engine No. 2060 -- (STS-127; STS-131; STS-135)
  • Engine No. 2058 -- (STS-116; STS-120; STS-124; STS-119; STS-129; STS-133)
  • Engine No. 2045 -- (STS-89; STS-92; STS-102; STS-105; STS-110; STS-113; STS-121; STS-118; STS-127; STS-131; STS-135)
  • Engine No. 2056 -- (STS-104, STS-109, STS-114; STS-121)
The 16 space shuttle engines are in storage in a climate-controlled Aerojet Rocketdyne facility at Stennis. The engines rest inside shipping containers and on mobile dollies.
Before each engine goes on the test stand, technicians will add the new Honeywell controller and put the engine through a thorough inspection. Benton said each engine will be ignited on the test stand about six times before being cleared for flight.
Once they pass testing, the engines will be transported to NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans for integration with the Space Launch System's Boeing-built core stage.
Fifteen of the engines are mostly intact, and parts exist to assemble a 16th engine -- designated Engine No. 2063 -- to have enough powerplants for four SLS missions.
At NASA's current budget, officials expect the fourth SLS mission to fly in the mid-2020s.
Because the Space Launch System is not reusable like the space shuttle, NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne will have to restart the engine production line for later missions.
While technicians work on the RS-25 engines, construction crews have descended on an Apollo-era test stand here to make the facility ready for an all-up eight-minute firing of the Space Launch System's core stage in 2016.
The B-2 test stand is surrounded by pine thickets and has canal access to receive the 27.6-foot-diameter SLS core stage.
The budget for the restoration project is approximately $100 million, according to Bryon Maynard, lead systems engineer for the B-2 test stand. So far, he said, the rehabilitation effort is running about 25 percent under budget.
The huge concrete facility is divided into two parts. The B-1 side is leased to Aerojet Rocketdyne for test firings of every RS-68 engine produced here before delivery to United Launch Alliance for Delta 4 flights. Engineers used the B-2 half of the test stand for firings of the Saturn 5 moon rocket's first stage in the 1960s, full-up tests of the space shuttle's three-engine main propulsion system in the 1970s, and qualification of the Delta 4's cryogenic core stage in the early 2000s.
 
The B-1/B-2 test stand at Stennis. The left half of the facility is leased to Aerojet Rocketdyne for testing of the Delta 4 rocket's RS-68 engine, and the right side is being restored for Space Launch System testing. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now
 
 Maynard said The B-2 stand has rusted and deteriorated since it was last used more than a decade ago in support of the development of the Delta 4 launcher.
NASA built the facility in the 1960s, and it is strong enough for rocket engine tests of up to 11 million pounds of thrust. The Saturn 5's first stage produced 7.5 million pounds of thrust, and four RS-25 engines with the Space Launch System core will generate nearly 1.7 million pounds of thrust at sea level.
Construction is due to wrap up by January 2016, according to Maynard, when the test stand will be ready to receive the SLS first stage.
The "green run" testing of the Space Launch System core vehicle will include three phases. First, teams will fill the stage with cryogenic super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in a wet dress rehearsal. Then the rocket's four engines will be fired twice for approximately 500 seconds, the expected duration they will burn during a real launch.
The base of the rocket will be suspended 105 feet above the ground. With a height of 200 feet, the stage will stand 30 stories above the forested Mississippi coastal plains.
During the test stand restoration project, workers will move a behemoth 1.2 million-pound metal structure and upgrade and extend a heavy-lifting crane. Crews already replaced a device called an aspirator, which cools down the super-heated air around the engine plume during a test firing.
If the first SLS liftoff remains set for late 2017, the core stage will need to arrive at Stennis in 2016.
In a money-saving move, NASA opted not to construct a ground test article of the SLS first stage. The vehicle to be tested in Mississippi will next go to Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations.
That is one reason why engineers plan a limited test series on the SLS core stage: to avoid excess wear-and-tear on the rocket that will fly.
KSC launch teams will travel to Stennis to participate in the ground tests in a familiarization exercise to hone countdown procedures ahead of the first flight.
The SLS green run test will be the most powerful ground firing of liquid-fueled rocket engines since 1970, when testing ended on the Saturn 5.
"When you stand out there and we fire it, you're going to feel it in your chest," Maynard said.
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Salo

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1408/20rd180delivery/#.U_ZZjaP-5eI
ЦитироватьRussian RD-180 rocket engines delivered to ULA
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: August 20, 2014
   
Dodging tit-for-tat sanctions that have paralyzed trade between the United States and Russia, a cargo plane landed in Alabama on Wednesday with two Russian-made RD-180 engines destined to power U.S. government spacecraft into orbit aboard Atlas 5 rockets.
 
File photo of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket powered by an RD-180 engine. Credit: United Launch Alliance
 
 
Спойлер
The engines flew from Moscow to Huntsville, Ala., aboard a Russian Antonov An-124 transport plane. Workers planned to unload the engines for a road trip to United Launch Alliance's rocket factory in nearby Decatur, Ala.
The shipment marked the first time RD-180 engines were delivered to the United States since a senior Russian government official threatened to cut off the supply of engines for launches for the U.S. military, the primary customer for United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket.
"Today, United Launch Alliance received two RD-180 engines at our factory in Decatur, Alabama, that will support critical near-term U.S. missions," said Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson, in a written statement. "We expect another shipment of three engines later this year."
RD-180 engines have flown 54 times since 2000 with a perfect record, including 48 launches of the Atlas 5 rocket.
Manufactured by NPO Energomash near Moscow, the dual-nozzle engines consume rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants. The engines produce 860,000 pounds of thrust at sea level and use an efficient closed-cycle staged combustion architecture.
No hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engine currently produced in the United States matches the performance of the RD-180 engine.
ULA's other rocket, the Delta 4, has a hydrogen-fueled U.S.-made Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68 engine on its first stage.
A statement in May by Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, charged with overseeing the Russian space and defense industries, raised doubts about future deliveries of RD-180 engines to the United States.
Responding to U.S. government sanctions targeting individuals with ties to the government of Vladimir Putin in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea, Rogozin proclaimed in a May 13 press conference that shipments of RD-180 engines for U.S. military satellite launches would end.
Rogozin was also named in a lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force by ULA competitor SpaceX, which is asking a federal judge to overturn an $11 billion sole-source contract signed between ULA and the Defense Department. SpaceX says it could launch many U.S. national security payloads at less cost than ULA.
SpaceX claimed that Rogozin personally profited from the sale of RD-180 engines to the United States. Rogozin denied the allegation.
 
File photo of an Atlas 5 first stage with an RD-180 engine. Credit: NASA/KSC
 
 A federal judge issued a temporary injunction banning future purchases of RD-180 engines by ULA or the Air Force, but she rescinded the order a week later after U.S. government officials assured the court that the transactions did not violate sanctions against Russia.
Rogozin's announcement that RD-180 engine exports would end was apparently not carried out in official Russian government policy. ULA and Air Force officials since May have repeatedly said their relationship with the Atlas 5's Russian propulsion suppliers was unchanged.
Former ULA president and CEO Michael Gass, who resigned as chief executive last week, said in June that production and deliveries of RD-180 engines would be accelerated at ULA's request.
Three more RD-180 engines are scheduled to arrive in the United States this fall, with at least an additional six engines due for delivery in 2015, Gass said.
After Wednesday's delivery, ULA has 15 RD-180 engines in its inventory in the United States. Another 27 RD-180 engines are on order with shipments scheduled through 2017.
ULA's contract for the engines is with RD AMROSS, a joint venture between NPO Energomash and United Technologies Corp.
United Launch Alliance announced in June it is spending internal funds for "early studies" on a U.S.-built hydrocarbon-fueled alternative to the RD-180 engine.
Officials said the company's study contracts with multiple U.S. rocket engine builders will help officials refine concepts for rocket engines and a potential new launch vehicle to use the U.S. replacement for the RD-180.
"While the RD-180 has been a remarkable success, we believe now is the right time to invest in a domestic engine, which is why we announced earlier this year that we have begun feasibility studies with multiple companies to build a new engine in the next five years," ULA said in a statement Wednesday.
"The U.S. government also recently made clear that it supports investment in a domestic engine and we look forward to participating in the development of that public-private partnership," ULA said in a statement.
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Salo

#51
http://spacenews.com/article/military-space/41630us-air-force-solicits-information-on-new-rocket-engine
ЦитироватьU.S. Air Force Solicits Information on New Rocket Engine
By Mike Gruss | Aug. 21, 2014

Amid heightened tensions with Russia, the Defense Department has been making preliminary preparations for life without the RD-180, which powers the first stage of United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket. Credit: NASA photo
 
WASHINGTON — On the same day two Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines arrived in Alabama from Moscow, the U.S. Air Force issued a request for information on the possibility of weaning itself from those very engines.
Amid heightened tensions with Russia, the Defense Department has been making preliminary preparations for life without the RD-180, which powers the first stage of United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket, one of two the company uses to launch military and other government satellites.   
The request for information, posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website Aug. 20, is a step in that direction.
Спойлер
"The Government is seeking insight into booster propulsion and/or launch system materiel options that could deliver cost-effective, commercially-viable solutions for current and future National Security Space launch requirements," the solicitation from Air Force Space Command says. "The Air Force needs this information to inform near term decisions about how to best ensure that future launch requirements are fulfilled by reliable, commercially-viable sources."
Companies are being asked to respond by Sept. 19 to 35 questions. Among them: "What solution would you recommend to replace the capability currently provided by the RD-180 engine?"
Air Force officials have told Congress they only have a broad idea of how to replace the RD-180. Estimates of the investment in money and time necessary to field an American-built alternative vary widely.
Congress, meanwhile, is preparing bills that would fund a full-scale engine development program starting next year; the White House is advocating a more deliberate approach that begins with an examination of applicable technologies.
In the request for information, the Air Force says it is open to a variety of options including an RD-180 facsimile, a new design, and alternative configurations featuring multiple engines, and even a brand new rocket.
The Air Force is also trying to decide on the best acquisition approach. Options include a traditional acquisition or a shared investment as part of a public-private partnership. 
The service is planning to host industry representatives for presentations on the potential development program Sept. 25 and Sept. 26. 
Aside from securing its own launch capabilities, the Air Force hopes to stimulate the development of a more robust domestic commercial propulsion industry. Employment in the U.S. propulsion sector has declined in recent years, especially following the retirement of NASA's space shuttle.
The RD-180 is built by RSC Energomash of Russia and sold to Denver-based ULA by RD Amross, a joint venture of Energomash and United Technologies Corp.  When that arrangement was set up during the 1990s, the idea was to eventually set up a U.S. production line for the hardware.
However, the U.S. production line never materialized due in large part to cost considerations. 
Russia has threatened to restrict RD-180 exports to the United States in retaliation for U.S. sanctions levied on certain Russian government officials following that country's incursions into Ukraine. However, ULA says that engine deliveries continue without interruption, the latest evidence being the arrival Aug. 20 of two RD-180s at the rocket maker's Decatur, Alabama, manufacturing plant
That delivery brings to 15 the number of RD-180 engines in the United States. ULA is expecting delivery of 27 additional engines through 2017 under its current contract with RD Amross. 
"We expect another shipment of three engines later this year," ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said.
A 2015 defense authorization bill drafted in the U.S. Senate would prohibit U.S. space companies from entering new contracts or renewing existing contracts for launch vehicle supplies from Russia.
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Salo

#52
http://spacenews.com/article/launch-report/41626aerojet-rocketdyne-to-3-d-print-rocket-engine-parts-under-air-force-demo
ЦитироватьAerojet Rocketdyne To 3-D Print Rocket Engine Parts under Air Force Demo
By Warren Ferster | Aug. 21, 2014

Aerojet Rocketdyne is expected to use the additive manufacturing technique, also known as 3-D printing, of selective laser melting (SLM) to manufacture large rocket engine parts. Credit: NASA/MSFC photo by Emmett Given
 
WASHINGTON — Aerojet Rocketdyne will demonstrate the use of additive manufacturing techniques to produce sel ected, full-scale rocket engine components under a Defense Production Act (DPA) Title 3 contract awarded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the company announced Aug. 20.
The contract is valued at $11.75 million over a three-year period, according to Jeffrey K. Smith, executive agent program manager for DPA Title 3, a Pentagon-wide initiative to develop affordable and commercially viable manufacturing capabilities for critical defense hardware. The program is housed at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Спойлер
In a written response to questions, Smith said Aerojet Rocketdyne is expected to establish and demonstrate "a domestic production capability to manufacture large rocket engine parts using selective laser melting (SLM) technology that pass the key performance parameter criteria and quality requirements."
As part of the contract Aerojet Rocketdyne will purchase and install SLM machines that will be used to build the components, Smith said. The company is expected to achieve that milestone during the second quarter of calendar year 2015, he said.
SLM is one of a number of additive manufacturing — also known as 3-D printing — techniques used to build hardware from 3-D designs using a layering process. The relatively new manufacturing process is being evaluated closely in the space industry as a way to bring down costs.
The SLM technique in particular uses a laser to melt, in sel ected areas, powdered metal that has been spread out on a flat bed. The process is repeated over and over on fresh new layers of metal powder until the desired object is created from the melted and fused material.
In a written response to questions, Jeff Haynes, additive manufacturing program manager at Sacramento, California-based Aerojet Rocketdyne, said the company will replicate parts of its operational RS-68 and RL-10 engines under the contract. The RS-68 is the main engine on United Launch Alliance's Delta 4 rocket, which along with the company's Atlas 5 launches most U.S. military and other government satellites. The RL-10 is an upper-stage engine, variants of which are used on both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4.
"These parts will demonstrate dimensional and structural capability to meet the demands of" the current traditionally manufactured parts, Haynes said. "Some parts will have improved performance characteristics which will be analytically measured based on the manufacturing approach applied."
The process, Haynes said, will be evaluated for its ability to lower the cost of producing engines.
Haynes said the company will use government funds to procure the necessary machinery, and share in the cost of developing and demonstrating the additive  manufacturing process for major engine components.
The program will require SLM manufacturing machines that are bigger than those that are widely available today, Aerojet Rocketdyne said in the press release.
Aerojet Rocketdyne visited leading SLM manufacturers in Germany in 2010 to evaluate the scaling potential of their machines, Haynes said. He said Aerojet Rocketdyne has already procured one scaled-up machine from Concept Laser GmbH and expects to take delivery in September. Plans call for buying two more from Concept Laser and one from EOS GmbH using funds fr om the latest Title 3 contract, he said. 
"These are still very 'developmental' in nature and we expect to encounter some challenges along the way as we scale up these parts to much larger sizes," Haynes said. "We are not simply planning to turn them on and push buttons to print parts."
In the press release, Aerojet Rocketdyne said it would demonstrate nickel, copper and aluminum alloys under the contract to produce parts ranging fr om simple ducts to heat exchangers. "The program scope is expected to replace the need for castings, forgings, plating, machining, brazing and welding," the company said.
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Salo

http://aviationweek.com/space/engine-makers-pushing-am-other-technologies-rd-180-replacement
ЦитироватьEngine Makers Pushing AM, Other Technologies For RD-180 Replacement
RD-180 prototype replacement could be ready to test in 2.5 years
 
Sep 15, 2014
Frank Morring, Jr. and Amy Butler | Aviation Week & Space Technology
 
Risk Reduction


Related Media
 A version of this article appears in the September 15 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Rocket-engine developments that evolved fr om preparations for an advanced strap-on booster to lift the largest version of the planned Space Launch System (SLS) could push a prototype 500,000-lb.-thrust U.S. replacement for Russia's RD-180 to the test stand in 2.5 years, contractors say.
 

The single-bell AR-1 kerosene-fueled engine would generate 500,000 lb. thrust and could be twinned for twice the capacity. Credit: Aerojet Rocketdyne Concept

Спойлер
Dynetics and Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJR) have joined forces on risk-reduction work growing out of NASA's SLS advanced booster program and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Hydrocarbon Boost effort. The goal is to hasten the AR-1 hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engine being proposed by AJR in hopes that Congress and the Pentagon will decide to go all-out on a U.S. powerplant for national security space launch in place of the RD-180.
Congressional defense committees have indicated a willingness to begin funding development of a large hydrocarbon rocket, given uncertainty over long-term availability of the RD-180 in the sanctions war over Russian ambitions in Ukraine. The Air Force is polling industry on options for a replacement engine, and the Dynetics/AJR work—so far only with NASA funding—is providing some of the answers.
"We think a risk-reduction program preceding full-scale development is the way to go to get you the fastest route to a real engine for the lowest cost," says Steve Cook, a former top-level NASA rocket propulsion engineering manager at Marshall Space Flight Center who has been director of corporate development at Dynetics for the past five years.
To that end, Dynetics and AJR have merged their work for NASA and the Air Force in hydrocarbon rocket technology. The new technologies could remove some of the uncertainty that would go into replacing the 860,000-lb.-thrust RD-180 manufactured in Russia by NPO Energomash with the proposed AR-1 (see artist's concept), a 500,000-lb.-thrust oxidizer-rich, staged-combustion engine that could be twinned for vehicles requiring more thrust.
That would include the United Launch Alliance Atlas V, currently the launch vehicle of choice for high-value U.S. national security payloads and potentially the next U.S. human launch vehicle as well. As the U.S. and its allies spar with Russia over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, support for a long-discussed but never-funded U.S. alternative to the RD-180 has been growing (AW&ST May 26, p. 22).
Cook says advance risk-reduction work enabled a tenfold reduction in the time it took for the J-2X engine to reach 100% power in hot-fire testing compared to the RS-68. The J-2X reached full power 29 days after testing started, he says. In the late 1990s, it took the RS-68 320 days to reach the milestone. 
"Risk reduction has real, tangible benefits and will save us years in schedule," says Cook, who was project manager on the Ares launch-vehicle development that was paced by the J-2X upper-stage engine development. "Our estimate is 2-3 years off schedule and several hundred million dollars in cost, because if you get those key risk areas knocked down to a reasonable level, and you understand the affordability equation, when you make your full-scale development decision, you've got a lot more data, so you're a lot smarter. And when you get going on full-scale acquisition, you're not trying to understand the technology challenges."
Scott Seymour, president and CEO of AJR parent GenCorp, says the rocket-engine company is targeting a full-production cost of $20-25 million for each two-engine shipset of AR-1s, with a development cost of $800 million to $1 billion over four years after a contract award (AW&ST June 12, p. 33). Technologies developed in the risk-reduction work by Dynetics and AJR include additive manufacturing (AM) of injectors and other engine elements, new alloys and new nozzle technology.
Materials engineers at AJR have developed a set of alloys they have trademarked as "Mondaloy" that combines high strength with resistance to burning, making them particularly useful in the oxygen-rich, high-pressure environments that would be found inside the AR-1 and other oxidizer-rich, staged-combustion rockets. The alloys offer cost and reliability advantages over the coatings used to protect components inside the RD-180, also an oxidizer-rich, staged-combustion engine, according to Paul Meyer, senior vice president for advanced programs and business development at AJR.
"We've been characterizing the application of Mondaloy inside that thrust chamber itself," Meyer says. "We don't have the normal erosion associated with that oxygen-rich environment. It gives us some reliability. It gives us endurance capability, and it also allows us to reduce some weight. It also helps us from a manufacturing perspective."
 

A gas generator test was conducted at Marshall Space Flight Center as part of risk-reduction work underway for the advanced hydrocarbon rocket engine that could replace Russia's RD-180. Credit: NASA

AM is also playing into the risk-reduction work by the two companies. Dynetics and AJR predecessor Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne used NASA funding under the $37 million Advanced Booster Engineering Demonstration and Risk Reduction (Abedrr) project to study what it would take to resurrect the F-1 Saturn V main engine for the strap-on boosters intended to bring the SLS to the 130-metric-ton capacity mandated by Congress (AW&ST Jan. 21, 2013, p. 20).
While NASA shelved that effort—at least temporarily—in favor of developing a new upper stage for a 105-ton version of the heavy-lift rocket, Dynetics conducted gas-generator hot-fire tests (see photo) and worked with AJR to build engine components, including an F-1 injector, using AM.
"We built and we're getting ready to test an additive-manufactured rocket engine injector at the 30,000-lb. class," says Cook. "The injector itself is the 30,000-lb.-thrust class. Typically, that would have taken 15 months to build. We did it in 15 days."
The work is continuing at AJR under a separate Air Force cost-sharing contract that the company is using to build and test engine parts made from various materials with large-scale laser-melting AM (AW&ST Aug. 25, p. 12).
"The role model we have is the RL-10, and the RL-10 [program] is actually building space-qualified hardware right now and delivering that hardware for the fundamental testing that will go into hot-fire tests in the first quarter of 2017," says AJR's Meyer. "So it's the pathfinder for what we want to do on AR-1. We've already qualified Inconel 65; we're finishing qualification in titanium, and we're expanding our capacity—although not necessarily for AR-1—into copper."
Use of designs from the RL-10—a hydrogen-fueled, upper-stage engine that dates to the early 1960s but is still in use today—as well as the F-1 and the Saturn V J-2 upper-stage engine that formed the basis for the J-2X illustrates how the two companies are taking advantage of heritage technology to hasten development of the AR-1. So far, the saber-rattling along the Ukrainian-Russian border has not had an appreciable effect on the supply of RD-180 engines for the Atlas V, but the Air Force is moving to position itself to begin a new-engine development as early as fiscal 2016.
Based on its request for information issued Aug. 20, which includes a question about a "shared-investment path" that would require industry to help foot the development bill, the Air Force has scheduled an "initial industry day" at its Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles Sept. 25-26. There, company representatives can meet one-on-one with government contracting specialists to present their ideas. Top-level briefings to Defense Department civilians are tentatively scheduled for late next month, and the House Armed Services Committee has authorized the transfer of $26.8 million to keep the process moving despite concern over "the lack of clarity in an acquisition strategy moving forward."
Dynetics and AJR, which combined their NASA and Air Force risk-reduction contracts last year with Dynetics as the prime contractor under the NASA-funded effort, will present the resulting findings as a team, Meyer says.
"We have looked at taking the combination of the two [risk-reduction efforts] and using the testing that will occur in the Abedrr program and lining that up with our Hydrocarbon Boost [Air Force Research Laboratory] contract," he says. "So we've offered the Air Force, as a team, how we could maximize that government investment to date, that industry investment to date, into a plan that would provide the least amount of risk to a 2019 engine."
The two companies believe a prototype AR-1 could be a fast-track route to replacing the RD-180, given a decision to begin development. With the work they have already done, Cook says, the engineering path ahead is clear.
"If you look at the major risks that we've got to go knock down in order to bring a new RD-180 engine replacement into play, the biggest risk is main combustion stability," he says. The plan would build on component level work in moving up to the subsystem level, focusing on ensuring combustion stability in the concept, building a full-scale main injector and testing it to "make sure it works like we want it to," Cook says.
With an injector in hand, the next step would be the turbomachinery. "We've got to have high-performance turbomachinery," he says. "It's staged-combustion, oxygen-rich, so we have to deal with the oxygen compatibility issues. We have to deal with integrating that turbomachinery in the right-sized package, and then putting that together in a powerpack demonstration wh ere you bring those key pieces together and do a demonstration. We believe we can get to that prototype state in about 2.5 years if a decision is made to go full out, and get a prototype engine as soon as possible." 
 
Check 6  Aviation Week editors discuss the prototype that could replace the RD-180 engine in the latest Check 6. AviationWeek.com/podcast
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"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Seerndv

Не пойму, они вернулись к своей старой идее два ТНА на один горшок ?
Свободу слова Старому !!!
Но намордник не снимать и поводок укоротить!
Все могло быть еще  хуже (С)

Salo

Вижу один в который подаётся и ЖК и керосин. А где второй?
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"

Seerndv

"Маловато будет!" (С)  :D

Свободу слова Старому !!!
Но намордник не снимать и поводок укоротить!
Все могло быть еще  хуже (С)

Seerndv

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:
Вижу один в который подаётся и ЖК и керосин. А где второй?
- это я смотрел вот на этот вариант на странице первоисточника:

http://www.rocket.com/ar1-booster-engine

- но как бы из одногоршковой видно что скорей всего и там один.
А гулял вариант картинки  с двумя.
Свободу слова Старому !!!
Но намордник не снимать и поводок укоротить!
Все могло быть еще  хуже (С)

Петр Зайцев

#58
ЦитироватьSeerndv пишет:

 http://www.rocket.com/ar1-booster-engine

- но как бы из одногоршковой видно что скорей всего и там один.
А гулял вариант картинки с двумя.
Нет у них ни денег, ни времени разрабатывать более мощный ТНА для двух горшков. Спарка - это два одиночных двигателя, назаываемая "ship set".

P.S. Раскладка агрегатов такова, чтобы их можно было повернуть в кольцо из 3-х, 4-х, и более двигателей. Проблема с центром, если он нужен для 5, 7, 9.

Salo

http://spacenews.com/article/launch-report/41884ula-and-blue-origin-to-team-up-for-rd-180-replacement
ЦитироватьAerojet Rocketdyne has been pushing a kerosene-fueled, 500,000-pound-thrust concept dubbed AR-1, which the company says could be fully developed in four years for less than $1 billion.
"Были когда-то и мы рысаками!!!"