Rocket Engines

Employees of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory are unaccustomed to seeing a bower of roses and a five-piece rock band where they test-fire the rocket engines that power the space shuttle. But they are not accustomed to having weddings there either. On Friday, quality assurance engineer Deborah (Debbie) Peterson and engineering specialist Joseph (Joe) Koncel exchanged vows just above the flame bucket on the grill of a steel testing tower known familiarly as "Alfa 3."

Quality assurance engineer Debbie Peterson and engineering specialist Joe Koncel exchanged wedding vows Friday just above the flame bucket on the grill of a steel testing tower known familiarly as "Alpha 3" in a sparsely inhabited canyon of the Santa Susana Mountains between Chatsworth and Simi Valley.

SpaceX has delayed its historic rocket launch to the International Space Station yet again. The launch date, which has been pushed back several times already, is now set for May 19. The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was slated to blast off May 7 from Cape Canaveral , Fla., in a demonstration flight for NASA . Three or four days after launch, the company is set to make history if it docks with...

Bud Benner, 74, had worked on tough jobs before the Apollo moon project, helping to design the X-15 rocket plane that flew at six times the speed of sound. But the race to the moon was at another level of human endeavor. Assistant chief engineer at North American Aviation in Downey, Benner was grappling with one of the smallest pieces of the Apollo project and perhaps the most complex: the command module.

White-hot acetylene torches bite into the steel bones of the abandoned hulk known as Vertical Test Stand-1, cutting apart the rusted cradle of American rocketry. Rocketdyne is demolishing this relic of the Cold War and the space race. Not because it cares little for history, but because it needs to save money. U.S. scientists of the 1950s and '60s labored feverishly here at Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory, testing prototype rocket engines that they prayed could beat the Soviets.

Boeing has fallen seven months behind schedule and is facing mounting costs on its revolutionary engine for the X-33 rocket plane, an experimental vehicle at the heart of NASA's effort to develop a low-cost reusable space launcher, the government disclosed Tuesday. The setback was caused by technical difficulties in bonding key high-temperature engine parts at Boeing's Rocketdyne facility in Canoga Park, where the X-33's novel linear aerospike engine is being built.

Early tests show that a new rocket engine design will eliminate the flaws that caused the space shuttle Challenger to blow up, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration official said Monday. John Thomas, manager of NASA's solid rocket motor redesign team, also said the space agency is on track toward a resumption of space flights in early 1988.

One of the nine engines on SpaceX's massive Falcon 9 rocket experienced a problem and shut down during last night's launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., company officials said. The anomaly occurred about 1 minute, 19 seconds into the flight. Check it out in the video here or below. "Initial data suggests that one of the rocket's nine Merlin engines, Engine 1, lost pressure suddenly and an engine shutdown command was issued immediately," SpaceX said in comment. The rocket is designed to handle an engine flameout and is slated to complete its mission, SpaceX said.

The first test-firing of the world's largest hybrid rocket motor was a success, reports Paul Estey, president of Ventura-based American Rocket Co. The unit, which was bolted in place for its test at Edwards Air Force Base last week, combined solid and liquid fuels to generate 250,000 pounds of thrust, Estey said. "We reached full thrust and we're very pleased," Estey said. "This is a major milestone for us." Friday's test was to be the first of four scheduled for this year.

Things looked a little different the first time John Glenn soared into orbit. Thirty-six years ago, Rocketdyne engineers huddled in cafeterias and auditoriums to peer at black-and-white TVs. Astronaut Glenn was a spry redhead. Young and serious in a dark suit, mechanical engineer Vince Wheelock had said a silent prayer, hoping he and his crew hadn't made any mistakes in assembling the Atlas engines that would power Glenn's historic orbit around the earth.