Aerojet Rocketdyne getting adventurous with RL-10CX

[darthgently]

Noice!

A few paragraphs in:

"...Aerojet said the RL10C-X is a variant of the RL1o developed for Vulcan Centaur that will “increase the use of additive manufacturing and introduce other advanced technologies to improve the quality, reliability, affordability and performance.” 

The RL10C-X uses a 3D-printed main injector and main combustion chamber, and has a 94-inch monolithic lightweight composite nozzle. According to Aerojet, the specific impulse, or Isp, of the RL10C-X is 461 seconds, which “puts it near the very top of the RL10 engine family in terms of performance. Specific impulse measures the amount of thrust generated by a rocket engine per unit of propellant consumed per second..."

https://spacenews.com/ula-orders-116-engines-from-aerojet-rocketdyne-for-vulcans-upper-stage/

[tater]

RL-10 is possibly the greatest rocket engine of all time. A phenomenal piece of hardware.

[sevenperforce]

461 seconds is an absolute dream. Wow. 

[tater]

41 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

461 seconds is an absolute dream. Wow. 

Given 38 required for Kuiper alone (plus the 9 other variants on the initial Atlas V launches, maybe AJR can actually get a real assembly line going and drop the price.

Course it really needs to be an order of magnitude cheaper.

[StrandedonEarth]

I read somewhere (but can't find it now) that ULA will be adding another Vulcan production line with the Amazon order. AJR will also be expanding their factory to meet demand (not specifically another line, but probably).

Some details, but not the second production line I was searching for... (probably posted elsewhere in this forum)

https://spacenews.com/amazon-launch-contracts-drive-changes-to-launch-vehicle-production/

And why does it cost so much? This video may be old, but it shows how much highly-skilled labor is, or was, involved...

All those tubes were painstaking hand-brazed. Hopefully between advanced robotics and additive manufacturing a lot of those high-priced man-hours can be eliminated...

Edited April 17, 2022 by StrandedonEarth

[tater]

Just now, StrandedonEarth said:

I read somewhere (but can't find it now) that ULA will be adding another Vulcan production line with the Amazon order. AJR will also be expanding their factory to meet demand (not specifically another line, but probably).

Yeah, the Amazon order has some useful downstream effects for the 3 companies getting launches in terms of production. ULA might also have to push SMART faster depending on BO production rate for engines. The buy means ULA needs 76 Be-4 just to support this contract if they are expended.

[StrandedonEarth]

Just now, tater said:

ULA might also have to push SMART faster depending on BO production rate for engines.

Accelerating SMART was also mentioned by Mr. Bruno somewhere in response to the Kuiper contract, along with the second production line. Again, I can't seem to find it, and I'm pretty sure they were both mentioned in the same article or tweet. Tory tweets so much (a good thing!) it's like finding a golden needle in a haystack...