Pratt & Whitney begins development of new rocket engine

June 17th, 1999

Pratt & Whitney (P&W) announced today the development of a new advanced high-performance liquid-hydrogen-fuelled rocket engine. Designated the RL50, the engine is being developed as an upper-stage power plant for both US and international launch vehicles.

Speaking at the Paris Air Show Larry Knauer, newly appointed president of P&W's Space Propulsion business unit said, "We see market need and growth for cryogenic upper-stage engines and intend to fill that need with the RL50. The engine complements our current RL10 engine family and will help to further strengthen our position as the leader in providing upper-stage propulsion."

The RL50, configured to meet future launch vehicle manufacturers' requirements for increased performance and payload delivery capability, will provide more than double the thrust of the highest performing RL10 engines presently in service, to levels greater than 50,000 pounds of thrust. The RL50's performance increase will come in a package approximately the same size as P&W's RL10, currently the upper-stage engine for Atlas, Titan and, most recently, Delta launch vehicles.

A series of demanding performance, cost and mission success goals have been set for the RL50 engine development program to provide improved launch system effectiveness and to increase value to the customer.

The RL50 engine will be the first new liquid upper-stage engine development effort in the United States since the early 1960's and the first major rocket engine development fully funded by a private engine company is expected to be available in 2003.

The engine builds on P&W's RL10 engine and incorporates recent technology development by P&W and the US Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate at Edwards Air Force Base, through the IHPRPT Program.

"It's very exciting because this is not a mere derivative of the RL10 engine, but a totally new engine employing advanced state-of-the-art technologies that we will very soon be able to offer to the space industry to help expand launch capability," stated Knauer.

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