RL-10 Rocket Engine: The Greatest Engine Ever?
John Williams shows you the RL-10 Rocket Engine and explains its role in the US rocket and space program. This rocket was developed in the 1950's and is still used today. He visits the US Space & Rocket Center's display of this important space propulsion system.
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Space Intelligence shares fun facts and excitement about space history, current space missions and future space exploration. John Williams is an avid fan and young space historian. His videos are designed to educate others to learn more about space history and technology.
Attributed content below:
Link: Aerojet Rocketdyne
RL10 PROPULSION SYSTEM
More than half a century of powering space exploration and national security
For more than fifty years, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RL10 engine has played a vital role in placing hundreds of military, government and commercial satellites into Earth’s orbit, and has helped send spacecraft to explore every planet in our solar system, including Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, the first two spacecraft to reach interstellar space.
Today, multiple models of the RL10 carry the engine’s legacy forward as the launch industry’s “workhorse” by powering the upper stages of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. Additional variants of the RL10 have been selected to provide upper stage propulsion for the OmegA rocket being developed by Northrop Grumman and the Vulcan rocket being developed by United Launch Alliance.
RL10 engines also are slated to help power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that is in development to lift astronauts to deep-space destinations aboard the Orion exploration spacecraft. A single RL10 will power the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage during the first un-crewed test flight of SLS and Orion, known as Exploration Mission-1. Four RL10 engines will support the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage that is being developed for future versions of SLS.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is also working to qualify a modern version of the engine known as the RL10C-X that will include major components built using 3-D printing technology. Incorporating 3-D printing into the manufacturing process will reduce lead times and cost while maintaining the outstanding performance and reliability customers have come to expect.
Wikipedia:
The RL10 is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine built in the United States by Aerojet Rocketdyne that burns cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. Modern versions produce up to 110 kN (24,729 lbf) of thrust per engine in vacuum. Three RL10 versions are in production for the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas V and the DCSS of the Delta IV. Three more versions are in development for the Exploration Upper Stage of the Space Launch System and the Centaur V of the Vulcan rocket.[2]
The expander cycle that the engine uses drives the turbopump with waste heat absorbed by the engine combustion chamber, throat, and nozzle. This, combined with the hydrogen fuel, leads to very high specific impulses (Isp) in the range of 373 to 470 s (3.66–4.61 km/s) in a vacuum. Mass ranges from 131 to 317 kg (289–699 lb) depending on the version of the engine.[3][4]
The RL10 was the first liquid hydrogen rocket engine to be built in the United States, with development of the engine by Marshall Space Flight Center and Pratt & Whitney beginning in the 1950s. The RL10 was originally developed as a throttleable engine for the USAF Lunex lunar lander, finally putting this capability to use twenty years later in the DC-X VTOL vehicle.[5]
The RL10 was first tested on the ground in 1959, at Pratt & Whitney's Florida Research and Development Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.[6][7] The first successful flight took place on November 27, 1963.[8][9] For that launch, two RL10A-3 engines powered the Centaur upper stage of an Atlas launch vehicle. The launch was used to conduct a heavily instrumented performance and structural integrity test of the vehicle.[10]
Multiple versions of the engine have been flown. The S-IV of the Saturn I used a cluster of six RL10A-3's, and the Titan program included RL10-based Centaur upper stages as well.[citation needed]
Four modified RL10A-5 engines were used in the McDonnell Douglas DC-X.[11]
A flaw in the brazing of an RL10B-2 combustion chamber was identified as the cause of failure for the 4 May 1999 Delta III launch carrying the Orion-3 communications satellite.[12]
The DIRECT version 3.0 proposal to replace Ares I and Ares V with a family of rockets sharing a common core stage recommended the RL10 for the second stage of the J-246 and J-247 launch vehicles.[13] Up to seven RL10 engines would have been used in the proposed Jupiter Upper Stage, serving an equivalent role to the Space Launch System Exploration Upper Stage.