News Archive / Tagged: AJ-26

• New pad, new engines – NewSpace: 0A set to support flights of Enhanced Antares

  Jason RhianDecember 18th, 2015

  WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, Va. — The launch site for Orbital ATK's Antares rocket is primed and ready to see the medium-range booster return to flight early next year (2016). That was the message relayed by representatives of the company during a roughly two-hour long tour of the Wallops Flight Facility.

• NASA: AJ26 turbopump likely to blame for loss of Orb-3 Antares

  Jason RhianNovember 7th, 2015

  NASA has released its findings on the Oct. 28, 2014, loss of an Orbital ATK Antares rocket and the Cygnus spacecraft it carried. The cause of the accident has been debated between Orbital and the supplier of the two AJ26 rocket engines that were used in Antares' first stage – Aerojet Rocketdyne. That debate appears to have been put to rest.

• No financial help coming from Aerojet Rocketdyne for Pad 0A cleanup

  Joe LatrellMay 19th, 2015

  It appears that Aerojet Rocketdyne, the manufacturer of the AJ26 rocket engine, will not be providing financial assistance for repairs to Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility’s Mid-Atlantic Spaceport’s (MARS). These repairs become necessary after an Orbital ATK Antares exploded approximately twelve seconds into flight on Oct. 28, 2014.

• Aerojet Rocketdyne lays off 65 employees with more cuts possibly on the way

  Jason RhianMay 12th, 2015

  According to sources within the aerospace industry, rocket engine manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne laid off an estimated 65 of its workers this past week. The decision to close out these positions comes at a time when the company is recovering from issues encountered with the aerospace firm’s AJ26 rocket engine, which was involved with the loss of […]

• Antares, Vulcan: Tough times ahead for Aerojet Rocketdyne

  Jason RhianApril 22nd, 2015

  When the Antares booster lifted off on October 28, 2014, under Orbital ATK’s third operational cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station (ISS), it seemed like the concept to fly critical supplies and experiments to the ISS using 40-year-old Russian-built engines had been validated. Twelve seconds later, that perception changed as the rocket and its […]

• Report: Orbital to seek new engine for Antares booster

  Jason RhianOctober 25th, 2014

  SpaceFlight Now has posted a report detailing how Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation is looking into a new, as yet unnamed, rocket engine for use on the first stage of the firm’s Antares launch vehicle. The article, appearing on Oct. 19, came just slightly more than a week before the company is set to launch its Cygnus spacecraft […]

• Update: Antares’ AJ-26 engine failure

  Scott JohnsonSeptember 15th, 2014

  BAY ST. LOUIS, MS – On September 12, Spaceflight Insider had the opportunity to tour the Aerojet Rocketdyne facilities (Building 9101) located at NASA’s Stennis Space Center (SSC), in south Mississippi, and speak to Rocketdyne’s SSC General Manager, Mike McDaniel, regarding the May 22 2014 failure of an AJ-26 rocket engine during a test for Orbital […]