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 is manufactured by Space Launch System (SLS) lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne in West Palm Beach, FL, and they have provided upper stage propulsion to launch hundreds of satellites and have sent spacecraft to explore every planet in the solar system.
Two RL10 engines power the upper stage of ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. RL10 engines also help power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, designed to carry astronauts to deep-space destinations aboard the Orion exploration spacecraft.
Designed and built by the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Division of the United Aircraft Corporation, the RL-10 was the world's first operational liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen, restartable rocket engine.
The Pratt & Whitney (P&W) RL10 liquid rocket engine was designed for upper-stage space-vehicles using liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellants to produce a very high specific impulse.
With that first launch, the RL10 engine, currently manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne, became the first engine powered by a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to be fired in space.
In the realm of spaceflight, rocket engine s are the unsung heroes that propel spacecraft and satellites beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Among these engineering marvels, one engine stands out for its longevity, reliability, and versatility: the RL-10.
Throttleable to 30% of thrust, sea level version of RL10. Four engines were built and were used on the DC-X and the upgraded DC-XA VTOVL SSTO launch vehicle demonstrators.
The RL10 is a highly efficient, upper-stage engine capable of making multiple restarts in space to place spacecraft into precise orbits or propel them to interplanetary destinations.
This is the RL10, the world's first operational liquid-hydrogen/liquid oxygen high energy rocket engine and was re-startable in space. It was developed and built by the Pratt & Whitney Aircxraft Company.
