Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
DIGIPIN Launched: India Embraces Geospatial Precision in Digital Addressing
IIT Hyderabad (IITH), in partnership with the Department of...
HAL to build, market Isro’s SSLV in landmark deal
New Delhi, Jun 20: In a historic move for...
Taiwan developing space capabilities for all-weather imaging
TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan is advancing its space...
Honda hails successful test of reusable rocket as it looks to get into the space business
Tokyo — Japan's second-biggest carmaker, Honda, has successfully tested...
China’s space program provides larger platform for broader international cooperation
BEIJING -- Experts from China's manned space program said...
India To Launch $1.5 Billion Joint Earth Mission With NASA In July
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian...
Axiom-4 mission delayed again: ISRO confirms Subhanshu Shukla’s ISS spaceflight won’t launch before 22 June 2025
The Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station has...
Mengzhou spacecraft for China’s moon-landing mission passes landmark test flight
China has completed the inaugural test flight of its...
Space application for ITMA Asia + CITME 2026 opens
Shanghai – Space application for the 2026 edition of...
Yanmar, Chia Tai and XAG Empower Thai Agriculture through Innovation
Bang Nam Priao District, Chachoengsao Province, Thailand – On...

December 14th, 2017
RS-25 Engine Test is Giant Step for 3-D Printing

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), and NASA completed hot-fire testing of an RS-25 rocket engine containing its largest additively manufactured component to date. Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3-D printing, will help lower the cost of future missions of NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket.

“This test demonstrates the viability of using additive manufacturing to produce even the most complex components in one of the world’s most reliable rocket engines,” said Eileen Drake, CEO and president of Aerojet Rocketdyne. “We expect this technology to dramatically lower the cost of access to space.”

During the 400-second test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, Aerojet Rocketdyne was able to evaluate the performance of a 3-D printed vibration dampening device, known as a pogo accumulator assembly, which was manufactured at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s facility in Los Angeles, California. The pogo accumulator assembly is a complex piece of hardware that acts as a shock absorber to dampen oscillations caused by propellants as they flow between the vehicle and the engine. The pogo accumulator assembly is important to ensuring a safe flight by stabilizing these potential oscillations.

The pogo accumulator assembly consists of two components: the pogo accumulator and pogo-z baffle. Both were made using a 3-D printing technique called selective laser melting, which uses lasers to fuse metal powder into a pattern by adding layer upon layer of material to produce the part. On the pogo accumulator alone, the new manufacturing technique reduced the number of welds by 78 percent.

The SLS, designed to send astronauts and cargo to explore the moon and other deep space destinations, uses four Aerojet Rocketdyne-built RS-25 engines, which are known for their extremely high performance and reliability.

3-D printing can simplify production of many of the RS-25’s thousands of parts and components; reducing costs and increasing reliability by cutting back on the number of pieces that must be welded together. Additionally, it shortens development timelines for components and enables enhanced flexibility in the designs.

The new 3-D-printed components were installed and tested on a development engine that is used to test new technologies that are being incorporated into the RS-25 as part of the SLS program. Earlier this year, the company tested new flight controllers on the same development engine prior to incorporating them into the Exploration Mission-1 flight engines.

“As Aerojet Rocketdyne begins to build new RS-25 engines beyond its current inventory of 16 heritage shuttle engines, future RS-25 engines will feature dozens of additively-manufactured components,” said Dan Adamski, RS-25 program director at Aerojet Rocketdyne. “One of the primary goals of the RS-25 program is to lower the overall cost of the engine while maintaining its reliability and safety margins. Additive manufacturing is essential to achieving that goal.”

Aerojet Rocketdyne is an innovative company delivering solutions that create value for its customers in the aerospace and defense markets. The company is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader that provides propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, tactical systems and armaments areas, in support of domestic and international markets. Additional information about Aerojet Rocketdyne can be obtained by visiting our websites at www.Rocket.com and www.AerojetRocketdyne.com.