HUNTSVILLE, Alabama– Aerojet Rocketdyne said Tuesday it is opening a rocket propulsion development office in Huntsville aimed at delivering a new rocket engine to replace a popular Russian engine now vulnerable to international tension.
The office in Cummings Research Park will employ up to 100 new workers if development goes as hoped, company officials said Tuesday. It will be led by Huntsville native Dr. Jerrol "Jay" Littles in coordination with former acting Marshall Space Flight Center director and Stennis Space Center director Gene Goldman.
The company said the new AR 1 rocket it plans to develop will be the first advanced hydrocarbon liquid-fuel rocket engine made by Aerojet Rocketdyne since it was formed by the merger of Aerojet and Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne in 2013.
''Our goal is ... nothing short of a renaissance in American rocket engine development," parent company GenCorp President and CEO Scott Seymour said in a statement.
The company is proposing its new engine to meet the Air Force's desire to find a replacement for the Russian RD-180 engine and possibly an entirely new launch system for America's national security satellites. Those launches are now made aboard Atlas rockets built by United Launch Alliance in Decatur and powered by the RD-180 engines.
The Air Force has asked companies to submit information by this Friday on systems they have in development to meet the government's needs. Aerojet Rocketdyne competitors are expected to include SpaceX, Blue Origin and Orbital ATK. Working with Aerojet Rocketdyne are Huntsville companies Dynetics, Inc. and Teledyne Brown Engineering.
New competitors including Elon Musk SpaceX and the tension with Russia has led the government to look at its entire launch infrastructure for putting national security and communications satellites into space. The simplest step is a replacement engine for the RD-180 that keeps the Atlas V booster. But the Air Force is asking if there is a "clean sheet" case for changing the entire launch system.
"We were working this before it became a national issue," GenCorp Vice President John Schumacher told AL.Com Tuesday. The new engine the company proposes can reduce reliance on Russia, he said, "but also can meet the needs of the nation today and in the future and position the United States back in the front of hydrocarbon propulsion in an affordable and reliable way."
Locating the office in Huntsville puts it close to the city's academic resources, government assets and aerospace industry, Goldman said. It is also convenient to Pratt & Whitney facilities in West Palm Beach, Fla., the Stennis Flight Center in Mississippi and the United Launch Alliance planet in Decatur.
Updated Sept. 18, 2014 to change the picture to illustrate the Atlas V rocket.
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