Aerojet Rocketdyne is a
subsidiary of American
defense company
L3Harris Technologies that manufactures rocket,
hypersonic, and electric propulsive systems for space, defense, civil and commercial applications.[3][4][2]Aerojet traces its origins to the
General Tire and Rubber Company established in 1915, while
Rocketdyne was created as a division of
North American Aviation in 1955.[5][6] Aerojet Rocketdyne was formed in 2013 when
Aerojet (then owned by GenCorp) and
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne were merged, following the latter's acquisition by GenCorp from
Pratt & Whitney.[7][8] On April 27, 2015, the name of the holding company, GenCorp Inc., was changed to Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc.[9] Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings was acquired by L3Harris in July 2023 for $4.7 billion.[10]
Several decades after it began manufacturing rubber products, General Tire & Rubber diversified into broadcasting and aeronautics.
In the 1940s, the
Aerojet company began experimenting with various rocket designs. For a solid-fuel rocket, they needed binders, and turned to General Tire & Rubber for assistance. General became a partner in the company.
Radio broadcasting began with the purchase of several radio networks starting in 1943. In 1952, its purchase of
WOR-TV expanded the broadcast business into television. In 1953, General Tire & Rubber bought the
RKO Radio Pictures movie studio.[11] All of its media and entertainment holdings were organized into the RKO General division.
Due to the studio and rocket businesses, General Tire & Rubber came to own a great deal of property in California. Its internal facilities management unit began commercializing its operations, landing General Tire & Rubber in the real estate business. This started when Aerojet-General Corporation acquired approximately 12,600 acres (51 km2) of land in Eastern Sacramento County. Aerojet converted these former gold fields into one of the premier rocket manufacturing and testing facilities in the Western world. However, most of this land was used to provide safe buffer zones for Aerojet's testing and manufacturing operations. Later, as the need for these facilities and safety zones decreased, the property became available for other uses. Located 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Sacramento along
U.S. Highway 50, the properties were valuable, being in a key growth corridor in the region. Approximately 6,000 acres (24 km2) of the Aerojet lands are now being planned as a community called Easton. Easton Development Company LLC was formed to assist in the process.[12]
RKO bottlers, which operated
Pepsi-Cola distributorships; and several resorts and hotels, including the Westward Look resort in
Tucson, Arizona.
Disconglomeration
Faced with a
hostile takeover attempt, among other difficulties, GenCorp shed some of its long-held units in the late 1980s.
RKO General ran into difficulties with the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during license renewal proceedings in the late 1980s. The FCC was reluctant to renew the broadcast licenses, due to widespread lying to advertisers and regulators. As a result of the protracted proceedings, GenCorp sold RKO General's broadcast properties beginning in 1987.
GenCorp also sold its former flagship, General Tire, to
German tire manufacturer
Continental AG in order to concentrate on Aerojet.
In 1999, GenCorp spun off its Decorative & Building Products and Performance Chemicals businesses. GenCorp formed
OMNOVA Solutions Inc. into a separate, publicly traded company, and transferred those businesses into it.
GenCorp's two remaining businesses, as of 2008, were
Aerojet and Easton Real Estate.[14]
Pension problems and leadership changes
GenCorp withdrew its over-funded pension during the real estate boom years of 2006 and 2007. The real estate bust caused an underfunding of the pension plan of over $300 million. This caused a freeze of its pension plan on February 1, 2009, and an end to
401(k) match on January 15, 2009. The move was expected to save the company 29 million a year.[15]
In March 2008, hedge fund Steel Partners II, which owned 14% of GenCorp, made an agreement that saw Terry J. Hall step down as CEO and gave Steel Partners II control of three board seats plus the selection of the new CEO (who would also hold a board seat). Steel Partners II had previously attempted a
hostile takeover in 2004, and forced the deal after complaining about "significant underperformance and deterioration of share price". Aerojet President J. Scott Neish was named interim CEO.[16]
In January 2010, Scott Seymour, the former head of Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems from 2002 to 2008, was appointed permanent CEO of GenCorp and Neish resigned.[17]
On December 20, 2020, it was announced that
Lockheed Martin would acquire the company for $4.4 billion.[25] The acquisition was expected to close in first quarter of 2022,[26] but this received opposition from
Raytheon Technologies. Later the
FTC sued to block this deal on a 4–0 vote in January 2022 on grounds that this would eliminate the largest independent maker of rocket motors[27][28] and Lockheed subsequently abandoned the deal in February 2022.[29][30]
Acquisition by L3Harris
In December 2022,
L3Harris Technologies agreed to buy the company for $4.7 billion in cash.[31] The acquisition was completed in July 2023.[10] L3Harris named former
CTO Ross Niebergall as president of the new Aerojet Rocketdyne business segment,[2] which would now be headquartered in
Palm Bay, Florida.[32]
Products
Current engines
RS-25 (
LH2/
LOX) – Previously known as the Space Shuttle main engine (SSME), it was the reusable main engine developed by
Rocketdyne for the now-retired
Space Shuttle. Remaining RS-25D engines are planned for use on early
Space Launch System rocket launches after which an expendable version, RS-25E will be developed for follow-on SLS launches.
RL10 (LH2/LOX) – Developed by
Pratt & Whitney and currently used on both the
upper stage of the
Delta IV rocket as well as the
Centaur upper stage for the
Atlas V. It is also currently used on the Space Launch System on the
Interim Cyrogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) and will be used on the
Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) in the future. Formerly used on the Centaur upper stage for
Titan, the
S-IV upper stage for the
Saturn I, and on the vertical-landing
McDonnell Douglas DC-X "Delta Clipper". It was intended to serve as the main propulsion engine for the proposed
Altair lunar lander. Two RL-10 engines planned for
Centaur V upper stage of ULA Vulcan.
RS-68 (LH2/LOX) – First stage engine for the Delta IV, designed as a simplified version of the RS-25 due to its expendable usage. It is the largest hydrogen-fueled rocket engine ever flown.
Rocketdyne F-1 (RP-1/LOX) – The main engine of the first stage of the
Saturn V rocket used in the
Apollo program. The most powerful single combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine ever developed.[34]
J-2X (LH2/LOX) – An engine that was originally being developed for the
Ares I's upper stage before the cancellation of the
Constellation program. The engine was considered for the
Space Launch System's Exploration Upper Stage before being replaced with a cluster of four RL10s. It is based on the
Rocketdyne J-2.
Baby Bantam (
RP-1/
LOX) – An 22
kN (5,000
lbf) thrust engine.[36] In June 2014, Aerojet Rocketdyne announced that they had "manufactured and successfully tested an engine which had been entirely
3D printed".
AJ-26 (
RP-1/LOX) – Rebranded and modified
NK-33 engines imported from
Russia. Used as first stage engine for the
Antares before being replaced by the
RD-181.
AJ-60A (Solid –
HTPB) – A solid rocket motor formerly used for the Atlas V launch vehicle, until being replaced by the Northrop Grumman
GEM-63 in 2021.[37]
AR-22 (Hydrogen/LOX) – An engine in development from 2017 to 2020 for the
XS-1 spacecraft, also known as the Phantom Express. The engine is based on the
RS-25 and utilizing parts remaining in Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA inventories from earlier versions of the RS-25. Two of the engines would have been built for the spaceplane.[38] Boeing pulled out of the project in January 2020, effectively ending it.[39]
In development
X3 ion thruster
On 13 October 2017, it was reported that Aerojet Rocketdyne completed a keystone demonstration on a new X3
ion thruster, which is a central part of the XR-100 system for the
NextSTEP program.[40][41] The X3 ion thruster was designed by the
University of Michigan[42] and is being developed in partnership with the University of Michigan, NASA, and the Air Force. The X3 is a
Hall-effect thruster operating at over 100 kW of power. During the demonstration, it broke records for the maximum power output, thrust and operating current achieved by a Hall thruster to date.[40] It operated at a range of power from 5 kW to 102 kW, with electric current of up to 260 amperes. It generated 5.4 newtons of thrust, "which is the highest level of thrust achieved by any plasma thruster to date".[40][43] A novelty in its design is that it incorporates three
plasma channels, each a few centimeters deep, nested around one another in concentric rings.[41] The system is 227 kg (500 lb) and almost 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) in diameter.[40]