Новости P&W Rocketdyne

[Salo]

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1204/18dynetics/

Rocket companies hope to repurpose Saturn 5 engines
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: April 18, 2012

WASHINGTON -- Dynetics and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne announced Wednesday they are teaming up to resurrect the Saturn 5 rocket's mighty F-1 engine to power NASA's planned heavy-lift launch vehicle, saying the Apollo-era engine will offer significantly more performance than solid-fueled boosters currently under development.


Artist's concept of the Space Launch System with boosters powered by F-1 engines. Credit: Dynetics Inc.
 
 "The ability to come back and offer NASA a resurrection of probably one of the most venerated successful engines ever, the F-1, is very neat," said Steve Cook, director of space technologies at Dynetics Inc. "The cool factor on this is very high."

NASA plans to award $200 million to multiple companies later this year for 30 months of design and risk reduction work on advanced booster concepts for the agency's Space Launch System, a powerful heavy-lifting rocket designed to dispatch astronaut crews to deep space destinations, including asteroids, Mars, and the moon.

The 30-month performance period is expected to begin Oct. 1 and run through early 2015. The first two flights of the Space Launch System will be boosted off the launch pad by five-segment solid rocket motors built by ATK and derived from the space shuttle program.

NASA hopes a bigger booster will be ready by the third SLS flight in the early 2020s.

Dynetics of Huntsville, Ala., is leading the contractor team proposing the F-1 engine design. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is the bid's propulsion partner and engine builder.

Cook, NASA's former manager of the scrapped Ares rocket program, said each of the two Dynetics boosters on an SLS mission would be propelled by a pair of kerosene-fueled F-1 engines.

"Each of those engines can get up to 1.8 million pounds of thrust," Cook said in an interview Wednesday. "This booster is a very simple, very standard booster. It's 18 feet in diameter. It uses the same attach points as the current five-segment solid rocket booster."

Pratt & Whitney is the prime contractor for the Space Launch System's core propulsion system, initially comprised of up to four hydrogen-fueled RS-25D/E engines. The cryogenic upper stage's J-2X engine, another redesigned engine from the Apollo moon program, is under development by NASA and Pratt & Whitney for SLS flights beginning in the 2020s.

The first two SLS missions, scheduled for 2017 and 2021, will be powered by an interim cryogenic upper stage, a four-engine core, and twin five-segment solid rocket boosters. The 2021 mission, planned to loop around the moon, will be the mammoth rocket's first crewed launch.

The earliest version of the Space Launch System will stand 30 stories tall and lift at least 70 metric tons, or 154,000 pounds, into low Earth orbit.

Subsequent long-duration missions to further destinations, such as asteroids or Mars, will require a more robust version of the Space Launch System using the J-2X engine and advanced boosters.

Along with the Dynetics and Pratt & Whitney team, ATK and other industrial contractors also submitted proposals for the advanced booster risk reduction awards.

"We're essentially flying out assets we have while we try to evolve to a more affordable and capable booster for the future," said Todd May, NASA's Space Launch System program manager, in an interview in February.

NASA plans a design and development contract for the advanced booster after the risk reduction phase ends in 2015.


A Saturn 5 first stage with five F-1 engines inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA
 
 Cook said the F-1 engine-powered advanced booster will provide about 20 metric tons, or 44,000 pounds, more lift capacity into low Earth orbit over the heavy-lift launcher's baseline solid rocket boosters.

"We offer a domestic booster design that takes advantage of the flight-proven Apollo-Saturn F-1, still the most powerful U.S. liquid rocket engine ever flown," said Ron Ramos, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's vice president for exploration and missile defense. "PWR is the only company to have returned a Saturn-era engine, the J-2X, to production. We bring unique lessons to the advanced booster cost and performance trades."

Five F-1 engines flew on the first stage of each Saturn 5 rocket's upper stage. The Saturn 5 flew 13 times, launching astronauts to the moon and lofting NASA's Skylab space station into Earth orbit.

"That makes it one of the most reliable engines ever," Cook said. "You don't want to tinker with a design that you know works and has been successful."

Cook said the F-1 engine activities planned for the next 30 months, assuming Dynetics wins an award from NASA, include full-scale systems demonstrations and some hotfire testing.

The amount of progress depends on the level of funding provided by NASA, Cook said, adding the contractor team is already refurbishing some equipment with private capital.

"The risks associated with that [engine] were retired 40 years ago," Cook said. "What that allowed us to do was to focus our modifications and our changes around manufacturability, affordability and reliability. You take that engine and incorporate the lessons learned over the last 40 years of human, commercial and [military] spaceflight in propulsion systems, we think we can bring a very affordable package to the game. Largely, the design we're bringing is very similar or the same, and we've focused on manufacturability, bringing new processes and techniques that have been proven out."

"Cost wasn't a factor in the '60s," Cook said. "Cost is a huge factor today."

[Salo]

AW&ST: UTC Closes On PWR Sale

Apr 19, 2012
 
By Guy Norris guy_norris@aviationweek.com
COLORADO SPRINGS

United Technologies Corp. (UTC) is expected to complete the sale of its Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne rocket propulsion arm within the next two weeks as part of efforts to raise $3 billion to help finance its acquisition of Goodrich Corp.

Although the rocket maker declines to comment, Aviation Week understands final paperwork is in the process of being signed for the company's sale to a private investment group. UTC originally put Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne up for sale in 2011, and revived its offer in March following shareholder approval for the takeover of Goodrich on March 13.

Fellow U.S. rocket manufacturers Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and GenCorp's Aerojet were originally thought to be the most likely potential bidders for PWR, which UTC bought fr om Boeing for $700 million in 2005. However, sources at the 28th National Space Symposium being held here tell Aviation Week that unnamed investors are in the process of clinching the deal.

The group believed to be most strongly linked to the acquisition is thought to involve Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, former Scaled Composites CEO Burt Rutan and former NASA administrator Mike Griffin. The three are behind Stratolaunch Systems, the company founded in late 2011 to develop a next-generation, mobile, airborne launch system based on a hybrid aircraft formed from two Boeing 747s (Aerospace DAILY, Dec. 14). Another board member of Stratolaunch is Dave King, vice president of Dynetics, the Huntsville, Ala.-based company that will be responsible for integration of the launch vehicle and carrier aircraft systems.

Coincidently, Dynetics and PWR announced at the National Space Symposium a long-term partnership to compete for the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Advanced Booster Engineering Demonstration and/or Risk Reduction (ABEDRR) procurement. Under this agreement, Dynetics and PWR will have exclusive rights to the use of the Saturn V F-1 rocket engine technology.

Sources close to the negotiations say that PWR does not require a partnership with an established propulsion company to fulfill its broader strategic objectives, and that work is going on to "disentangle" its operations from those of UTC. The challenge is hardest in West Palm Beach, Fla., wh ere the rocket maker shares production and test facilities with those of main engine maker Pratt & Whitney, and helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky. PWR is understood to be exploring separate entrances to the swampland site as part of the process.

In California, PWR has been busy consolidating its Canoga Park sites close to Los Angeles as part of drastic cost-cutting moves in the wake of the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. "Between now and 2013 we'll cut the amount of fixed space in half, [where] the lion's share of square footage is in California. We'll be going from 2.1 million square feet to under 1 million square feet," says PWR President Jim Maser.

The company is also moving to a common set of assets that will serve "the entire production line," he adds. "We are basically redefining the organization as we transition into the future as we see it. The primary objective is reducing the cost of manufacturing in a low-volume environment, customer's risk posture and procurement strategy. We're also through the lion's share in reducing staff," Maser says. Overall employment, which peaked at 17,700 during the Apollo program in the mid-1960s, is now at 2,400, representing a reduction of around 1,000 over the past three years.

[Salo]

Saturn V To Mars?

Posted by Frank Morring, Jr. 4:19 AM on Apr 18, 2012

Among the kerosene-fueled rocket engines NASA is considering as a powerplant for its planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) is the venerable F-1 engine that took 12 men to the Moon.


Rocketdyne Archives

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which owns rights to the massive engines built by its predecessor Rocketdyne, proposed it as an option to companies that have submitted risk reduction proposals to the U.S. space agency for a strap-on SLS booster.

The advanced booster would crank the lift capacity of the deep-space SLS up to at least 130 metric tons, from the targeted 70 metric tons after its first scheduled flights in 2017 and 2021. It's early days yet, to say the least, but the engine-maker had interest in the big old engine from some of the launch vehicle companies that submitted proposals, so it's on the table for the time being.

Rocketdyne built F-1 and F-1A variants of the first stage engine for the Saturn V Moon rocket, at 1.5 and 1.8 million pounds thrust, respectively. PWR has several F-1 turbopumps in stock, and the five flight engines built for the cancelled Apollo 18 mission are still around.

NASA will decide this summer what design options for the advanced booster that it wants to pursue, and the F-1 has some advantages. It's still the most powerful rocket engine ever built, and Rocketdyne engineers in the 1960s solved issues like combustion stability that would cost a fortune to recreate today.

The modern company also proposed the Russian-built RD-180 that it supplies under license to power the Atlas V, and a developmental engine designated the RS-84. Started for NASA's terminated Space Launch Initiative, that staged-combustion kerosene-fueled engine develops about 1.05 million pounds thrust, as does the RD-180, but it didn't draw the attention from the booster bidders that the completed engines did.

PWR is already upgrading the upper-stage engine from the Saturn V for the SLS upper stage. Known as the J-2X, it is undergoing tests on two different test stands at Stennis Space Center. As it has done with the J-2X, the company says it would upgrade the F-1 with modern manufacturing techniques to hold down production cost.

Current plans call for PWR to finish the J-2X development, and then put it on hold until NASA is ready to begin flying the upper stage, probably in the late 2020s. If the advanced booster is also flying then with an F-1 powerplant, the two Saturn engines' basic designs would be 60 years old.

But then, the basic design of the internal combustion engine for motor vehicles is older than that. Like automakers, rocket makers don't see the need to reinvent the wheel.

[instml]

PWR Reducing Manufacturing Space by More than Half

COLORADO, SPRINGS, Colo. — With business volume down sharply following the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet, liquid propulsion provider Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is reducing its production footprint by more than half, mostly in California, company officials said.

Jim Maser, PWR's president, said that by the end 2013, the company will have shrunk its factory floor space from 189,000 square meters to less than 90,000 square meters. PWR has sprawling manufacturing and test facilities in Canoga Park, Calif., where it is headquartered, but Maser said operations in West Palm Beach, Fla., also are being consolidated.

Briefing reporters April 16 here at the National Space Symposium, Maser said the propulsion business has high fixed costs that can be offset by production volume. With volume down, PWR is working to reduce overhead and streamline operations, he said, adding that much of the company's infrastructure was set up for NASA's human spaceflight program, where work was done under cost-plus contracts in which the government assumes the risk of cost growth.

Maser said most of the work force reductions associated with the infrastructure overhaul have already been made. PWR, which is up for sale by parent company United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn., now has about 2,400 employees, down about 1,000 from three years ago, he said.

Maser said PWR is looking for efficiencies wherever it can find them. Support functions are being consolidated, for example, and common tooling and facilities are being used across engine production programs to the extent possible, he said.

PWR is the largest U.S. maker of liquid-fueled rocket engines, and its biggest program was the space shuttle, which NASA retired last summer. The company built and refurbished the Space Shuttle Main Engine, three of which were used on each orbiter mission.

The shuttle's retirement has caused cost spikes on PWR's other products, most notably the engines it supplies for the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets built and operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) of Denver. These expendable rockets are used to launch the vast majority of U.S. government satellites, and the rising cost of this activity has brought ULA, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture, under intense congressional scrutiny in the past couple of years.

The U.S. Air Force's strategy for reducing its launch costs is a so-called block buy of Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets, the idea being to stabilize production and thereby reduce uncertainty in the supplier base while reaping the efficiencies associated with bulk production. The block buy options under consideration range from six to 10 booster cores annually over a period of three to five years.

PWR manufactures the RL10 upper-stage engine, different variants of which fly atop both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4, as well as the latter rocket's RS-68 main engine. The company also is a partner in the RD-Amross joint venture with Russia's Energomash propulsion manufacturer that supplies the Atlas 5's RD-180 main engine.

The Air Force favors using firm, fixed-price contracts throughout the ULA supplier chain for the block buy, but PWR executives say this is not necessarily the best way to save money. Such arrangements put the contractor on the hook for any program cost growth, and Maser said the company would have to protect itself by charging higher prices.

"We're happy to do fixed-priced contracts but it's going to cost the customer more," Maser said. There are factors in the cost of producing rocket engines that are unpredictable and beyond the company's control, he said.

For example, the company tests RS-68 engines at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and must lease that infrastructure and buy propellant from NASA. "We have no idea what they're going to be charging us in 2016," Maser said.

Steven A. Bouley, PWR's vice president for launch vehicles and hypersonics, said the company's Stennis-related RS-68 costs have grown by 12 percent to 15 percent in a single year.

Company officials said a more sensible approach is a hybrid featuring fixed-price contracts for products whose manufacturing costs and processes are well understood and predictable, and cost-plus arrangements for those with riskier cost profiles.

PWR has built its latest engine production proposals to ULA under the assumption that the Air Force will order eight rockets over a five-year period starting in 2013, with launches beginning in 2015. One proposal is for 31 RL10 upper-stage engines of various configurations; the other is for 21 RS-68 main engines, Bouley said.

ULA has a sizable number of RL10 engines in inventory, PWR officials said.

The Defense Department projects it will need 53 launch missions from 2015 through 2019, PWR officials said.

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120427-pwr-reducing-manufacturing-space.html

[Salo]

http://www.sfvbj.com/news/2012/may/15/pratt-whitney-rocketdyne-begins-week-long-test-sch/

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Begins Week Long Test Schedule
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne today began testing its rocket engines in Mississippi and Florida.

The tests, which will continue through Friday, are significant for the company because they combine both development and production engines, said Jim Maser, president of the Canoga Park-based rocket engine developer and manufacturer.

"We'd like every week to be this way," Maser said.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne engines have been used in four launches this year by the United Launch Alliance. The next launch using the company's engines on an Atlas V rocket takes place in mid-June, Maser said.

A development RS68A engine will be tested at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi today. On Wednesday, a test of a J2X engine at Stennis will focus on a modified nozzle extension that dissipates heat that is generated by the engine. The seven-second test is the first of 16 taking place throughout the summer months, Maser said.

An Atlas V rocket engine on Thursday will go through the standard acceptance test in West Palm Beach. Another J2X test takes place at Stennis on Friday; the goal is to push to the limits the gas generator and turbo machinery to see how they operate and meet engineering expectations, Maser said.

Mark Madler

[Salo]

http://www.pw.utc.com/media_center/press_releases/2011/04_apr/4-26-2011_00000.asp

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68A Engine Configuration Meets All Customer Requirements for Flight

CANOGA PARK, Calif., April 26, 2011 – Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed the Design Certification Review for the upgraded RS-68A engine configuration, demonstrating the world's most powerful hydrogen-fueled engine has met all requirements to power heavy-lift vehicles into space. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company.

"This is a stamp of approval for the RS-68A engine and major milestone for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, our United Launch Alliance customer and, most importantly, the nation," said Dan Adamski, RS-68 program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. "The hard work and determination that everyone dedicated to the RS-68A program over the years brings a new large, liquid hydrogen-fueled engine to market – one capable of lifting heavy payloads into orbit and possibly beyond."

The Engine System Design Certification Review, conducted on March 31 and April 1 by the customer and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, evaluated the RS-68A engine configuration against detailed requirements and specifications. It was the culmination of a series of reviews that assessed the engine at the component, subsystem and system level, and confirmed compliance with requirements through analysis, test and hardware inspections of development engine 14001 and certification engines 30001 and 30002.

The first three RS-68A flight engines – 30003, 30004 and 30005 -- have successfully completed acceptance testing. Engine 30003 has already been integrated onto a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle in Decatur, Ala. Integration activities for engine 30004 have been initiated, and the third engine, 30005, has successfully completed its processing at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and is awaiting shipment to Decatur in May. The three engines are scheduled to boost a future Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle into orbit carrying a government payload.

The RS-68A, an upgrade of the RS-68 engine, is a liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen booster engine designed to provide increased thrust and improved fuel efficiency for the Delta IV family of launch vehicles. Each RS-68A will provide 702,000 pounds of lift-off thrust, or 39,000 more pounds of thrust than a basic RS-68 engine, with increased combustion efficiency as well.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a part of Pratt & Whitney, is a preferred provider of high-value propulsion, power, energy and innovative system solutions used in a wide variety of government and commercial applications, including the main engines for the space shuttle, Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, missile defense systems and advanced hypersonic engines. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is headquartered in Canoga Park, Calif., and has facilities in Huntsville, Ala.; Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Stennis Space Center, Miss; and ARDE, Carlstadt, N.J. For more information about Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, go to www.prattwhitneyrocketdyne.com.

Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines. United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and commercial building industries.

[Salo]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pratt--whitney-rocketdyne-continues-tests-on-department-of-defense-nasa-engines-130362743.html

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Continues Tests on Department of Defense, NASA Engines

CANOGA PARK, Calif., Sept. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In an impressive display of power and technology, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed a series of hot-fire tests on the certified RS-68A engine, the world's most powerful hydrogen-fueled engine. The tests demonstrated the capability of the engine to operate for 4,800 seconds of cumulative run time – four times the design life of the engine and more than 10 times what's needed to boost a United Launch Alliance heavy-lift rocket into space. The tests took place at John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.

"We are proud to celebrate this success with our United Launch Alliance customer on a test series that went above and beyond in demonstrating the robustness and reliability of the RS-68A engine," said Dan Adamski, RS-68 program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. "The RS-68A performed beautifully and as expected, and test results indicate no issues with the engine hardware, further demonstrating its readiness as a heavy-lift engine. The tests also provided invaluable data that improves our ability to predict the performance of the engine on launch day."

The RS-68A is a liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen booster engine designed to provide increased thrust and improved fuel efficiency for the Delta IV family of launch vehicles. It evolved from the RS-68 engine, which was developed and certified for commercial use entirely on private company funds. Each RS-68A will provide 702,000 pounds of lift-off thrust, or 39,000 more pounds of thrust than the RS-68 engine, with increased combustion efficiency as well.

In addition to the successful margin demonstration testing of the RS-68A engine, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, together with NASA, has begun testing on the upper-stage J-2X engine. To date, five hot-fire tests have been conducted on the J-2X, which could be used to boost humans beyond low-Earth orbit.

[LG]

Э... что самое интересое - нам практически ничего против этого зверинца делать не надо.
Все лазерные технологии элемернтарно парируются вращением РН вокруг своей оси.
И все.

[LG]

Сбой

[LG]

Э... что самое интересое - нам практически ничего против этого зверинца делать не надо.
Все лазерные технологии элемернтарно парируются вращением РН вокруг своей оси.
И все.

[Старый]

Э... что самое интересое - нам практически ничего против этого зверинца делать не надо.
Все лазерные технологии элемернтарно парируются вращением РН вокруг своей оси.
И все.

Не элементарно. Требуется всего лишь увеличить мощность лазера в пи раз.

[G.K.]

Э... что самое интересое - нам практически ничего против этого зверинца делать не надо.
Все лазерные технологии элемернтарно парируются вращением РН вокруг своей оси.
И все.

Не элементарно. Требуется всего лишь увеличить мощность лазера в пи раз.

А мы ещё абляцию повесим  :wink:

[Myth]

Э... что самое интересое - нам практически ничего против этого зверинца делать не надо.
Все лазерные технологии элемернтарно парируются вращением РН вокруг своей оси.
И все.

Не элементарно. Требуется всего лишь увеличить мощность лазера в пи раз.

Зависит от соотношения между диаметром пятна и диаметром ракеты, так что скорее всего больше. Это ж какой пи... эээ... мощный лазер иметь надо!

[Salo]

instml пишет:



Throttle Up!

During a record-breaking test on June 8, 2012, engineers throttled the J-2X powerpack up and down several times to explore numerous operating points required for the fuel and oxidizer turbopumps. The results of this test will be useful for determining performance and hardware life for the J-2X engine turbopumps.

The J-2X engine will power the upper stage of the evolved NASA's Space Launch System, an advanced heavy-lift rocket that will provide for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit.

The test was conducted at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is developing the J-2X engine for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Image Credit: NASA/SSC

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2278.html

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120615-delta-engine-variant-cost-cutting.html
 Fri, 15 June, 2012
New Delta 4 Engine Variant is Part of ULA Cost Cutting Strategy
By Warren Ferster

 WASHINGTON — The scheduled June 28 launch of a U.S. national security satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket will debut a new and more-powerful variant of the vehicle's RS-68 main engine that the company says will help cut costs and add flexibility to its fleet.

 The RS-68A, also featuring better fuel efficiency than current versions of the engine, was designed specifically for the Delta 4 Heavy rocket that is used to loft the U.S. government's biggest satellites. But ULA plans to incorporate the RS-68A on all versions of the Delta 4 starting around 2015, thus eliminating manufacturing variability — both on the engine itself and on related first-stage hardware — that drives up costs, ULA spokeswoman Jessica F. Rye said in a written response to questions.

[Salo]

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=60153

(кликабельно)

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne tests a thruster destined for Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft. The thruster was fired in a vacuum chamber that simulated a space-like environment of 100,000 feet at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M., to verify its durability in extreme heat, evaluate the opening and closing of its valves and confirm continuous combustion and performance. Twenty-four thrusters will be part of the spacecraft's orbital maneuvering and attitude control system OMAC, giving the CST-100 the ability to maneuver in space and during re-entry. The thrusters also will allow the spacecraft to separate from its launch vehicle if an abort becomes necessary during launch or ascent. In 2011, NASA selected Boeing of Houston during Commercial Crew Development Round 2 CCDev2) activities to mature the design and development of a crew transportation system with the overall goal of accelerating a United States-led capability to the International Space Station. The goal of CCP is to drive down the cost of space travel as well as open up space to more people than ever before by balancing industry's own innovative capabilities with NASA's 50 years of human spaceflight experience. Six other aerospace companies also are maturing launch vehicle and spacecraft designs under CCDev2, including Alliant Techsystems Inc. ATK, Blue Origin, Excalibur Almaz Inc., Sierra Nevada Corp., Space Exploration Technologies SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance ULA. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew . Image credit: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne

Thruster Tests Completed for Boeing's CST-100

Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne has successfully completed a series of tests on a thruster destined for Boeing's Commercial Space Transportation spacecraft, designated CST-100.

Boeing is one of several companies working to develop crew transportation capabilities under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 agreement with NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The goal of the program is to help spur innovation and development of safe, reliable and cost-effective spacecraft and launch vehicles capable of transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station.

Twenty-four thrusters will be part of the spacecraft's orbital maneuvering and attitude control system (OMAC), giving the CST-100 the ability to maneuver in space and during re-entry. The thrusters also will allow the spacecraft to separate from its launch vehicle if an abort becomes necessary during launch or ascent.

"Boeing and Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne know what it takes to develop safe systems and subsystems," said NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango. "They're building on the successes of their past, while pushing the envelope with next-generation ideas to create a spacecraft for low Earth orbit transportation."

During tests conducted at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M., an OMAC thruster was fired in a vacuum chamber that simulated a space-like environment of 100,000 feet. The tests verified the durability of the thrusters in extreme heat, evaluated the opening and closing of its valves and confirmed continuous combustion and performance.

"We're excited about the performance of the engine during the testing and confident the OMAC thrusters will affordably meet operational needs for safe, reliable human spaceflight," said Terry Lorier, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne's Commercial Crew Development program manager.

All of NASA's industry partners, including Boeing, continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities.

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/pwr_omac.html

[Brake]

Э... что самое интересое - нам практически ничего против этого зверинца делать не надо.
Все лазерные технологии элемернтарно парируются вращением РН вокруг своей оси.
И все.

А приводы рулевых двигателей  на вращающейся ракете не отвалятся ?

[Salo]

instml пишет:

J-2X testing continues

Eventually, Orion will ride an upper stage powered by the J-2X, a liquid-fueled engine that builds on the heritage of the J-2, which powered America's Saturn rockets. As NASA engineer William Greene explains on his J-2X blog, although the engine shares a name with the J-2, it has been re-designed almost entirely fr om scratch, offering significant improvements over the legacy engine. In another post, Greene lays out a spread of details from recent J-2X testing efforts. Test fires are currently taking place on two stands at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

On the A1 stand, J-2X powerpack testing is progressing. The powerpack is the top portion of the engine and excludes the thrust chamber and nozzle system. Testing with a lim ited set of components allows engineers the flexibility to 'play games' (as Greene describes it) with the engine, varying operations and conditions more than might be possible with the entire assembly, achieving a wider spread of test data. Here are some recent powerpack test results:

* May 10 / test A1J015: Fired powerpack 340 of 655 planned seconds, meeting most testing objectives.
* May 24 / test A1J016: Fired powerpack 32 seconds. The test was cut short due to a hydrogen leak in the facility (not related to the powerpack).
* June 8 / test A1J017: Fired powerpack for full duration, 1150-second test. The test set a duration record for stand A (stand B has a slightly longer record set by Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) tests.

At the A2 stand, the full J-2X development engine is being tested:

* April 26 / test A2J011: Fired engine 3 of 7 planned seconds. A seal in the apparatus used to simulate low pressure in the engine nozzle was damaged.
* May 16 / test A2J012: Fired engine 7 seconds (full duration).
* May 25 / test A2J013: Fired engine 40 seconds (full duration). First switch of the entire engine to secondary (throttled) mode.
* June 13 / test A2J014: Fired engine 260 seconds (full duration). Test started in secondary (throttled) mode and switched to primary mode.

Core stage moves from concept to design

Finally, the core stage of The Monster Rocket has moved from design requirements to blueprints, as NASA announced it had completed a major technical review last month. The stage will debut with four RS-25D engines pilfered from retired space shuttle orbiters. When those engines run out, they will be replaced with RS-25E engines -- 'E' for 'expendable' -- cheaper, non-reusable versions.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/jason-davis/20120711-checking-in-on-the-space.html

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120723-aerojet-parent-company-bids-550-million-for-rival-rocketdyne.html

Mon, 23 July, 2012
Aerojet's Parent Company Bids $550 Million for Rival Rocketdyne
By Brian Berger

 WASHINGTON — Aerojet parent company GenCorp. Inc. said July 23 that it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corp. for $550 million.

 GenCorp intends to finance the acquisition of Aerojet's chief liquid-propulsion rival with a combination of cash on hand and issuance of debt, the Sacramento, Calif., company said in a press release.

 United Technologies Corp. has been looking to sell Canoga Park, Calif.-based Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and other noncore businesses to help finance its purchase of Goodrich Corp.

 Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne provides the main propulsion systems for the United Launch Alliance Atlas and Delta launch vehicles. The company also is under contract to provide the core engines for NASA's Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket currently under development.

 GenCorp Chief Executive Scott Seymour said buying Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne would nearly double the size of GenCorp's propulsion business.

 "We see great strategic value in this transaction for the country, our customers, partners supply base and our shareholders," Seymour said in a statement. "The combined enterprise will be better positioned to compete in a dynamic, highly competitive marketplace, and provide more affordable products for our customers."

 GenCorp said it expects the deal to close in the first half of 2013, assuming federal regulators approve the deal.