RL-10

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Rocket engine in a test stand
Delta IV second stage with engine
Delta IV second stage with RL-10B-2 engine

The RL-10 was the first US rocket engine to use liquid hydrogen as fuel. Modernized versions of this engine are being built by Aerojet Rocketdyne and used in current launch vehicles. The upper stage of the Delta IV and the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas and Titan missiles use the RL-10 as their engine.

history

Development for the RL-10 began in 1958 when the military research organization ARPA ordered a Centaur upper stage . The engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney should develop a suitable drive for this. On July 1, 1958, the project was transferred to NASA .

The first tests on the ground began in 1959. On November 7, 1960, an engine exploded in the test stand near West Palm Beach. The first flight was scheduled to take place on May 8, 1962 in the second stage of an Atlas Centaur, but the missile exploded in flight due to a failure in the first stage. A successful test flight of this configuration took place on November 27, 1963. The engine was also used in the second stage of the Saturn I and completed its maiden flight on the SA-5 mission on January 29, 1964.

The RL10A-5 version was used by McDonnell Douglas in the Delta Clipper project , also called DC-X, but the project was discontinued after the crash and explosion of the prototype on landing during the fourth test flight.

Current assignments

The one or two engines of the RL10A-4-2 version are used in the upper stage of the Lockheed Martin Atlas V, and one engine of the RL10B-2 version in the upper stage of Boeing's Delta IV . In the future (from 2021) four RL-10 engines are to be used in the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) of the Space Launch System ; this is a configuration similar to that of the second stage S-IV of the Saturn I in the 1960s. The RL-10 will also be used in the United Launch Alliance's planned Vulcan rocket . It prevailed against the BE-3 engine from Blue Origin .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John L. Sloop: NASA Plans, ARPA Acts. In: Liquid Hydrogen As a Propulsion Fuel, 1945-1959. NASA, 1978, p. 195 , accessed October 14, 2010 .
  2. ^ John L. Sloop: Transfer of Centaur. In: Liquid Hydrogen As a Propulsion Fuel, 1945-1959. NASA, 1978, p. 200 , accessed on October 14, 2010 (English): "on July 1, 1959 Centaur was transferred from ARPA to NASA with scarcely a ripple"
  3. ↑ http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/aclv3cb.html
  4. ↑ ULA picks an engine for its next generation rocket - just not the main one . In: The Verge . ( theverge.com [accessed June 10, 2018]).