Rocketdyne Relaunches as Independent Company, Keeps 3D-Printed RL10 Engines

Rocketdyne Is Independent Again

AE Industrial Partners completed its $845 million acquisition of L3Harris Technologies' space propulsion, power, and electronics units on August 4, reviving the Rocketdyne name as a standalone company. AE Industrial holds a 60 percent controlling stake; L3Harris retains 40 percent and will stay on as a strategic partner.

The revived Rocketdyne is a smaller animal than the Aerojet Rocketdyne that L3Harris bought three years ago. Missile propulsion, solid rocket motors, and hypersonic technologies stayed with L3Harris and will eventually be spun off publicly. NASA's RS-25 Space Shuttle main engine also stayed behind. What Rocketdyne keeps is the RL10 upper-stage engine, spacecraft propulsion systems, space electronics, and nuclear power work.

The RL10 and Its 3D-Printed Combustion Chambers

The RL10 is the company's best-known product. First flown in the 1960s, it has powered the upper stages of Atlas 5, Vulcan, and NASA's Space Launch System. Rocketdyne says it has delivered more than 500 RL10 engines and approximately 22,000 chemical thrusters for spacecraft over the program's lifetime.

What many people do not realize is that the RL10 production line now uses 3D-printed combustion chambers. Additive manufacturing cuts the number of parts, reduces lead times, and makes it possible to iterate designs faster than with traditional machining. For a program that has been running for more than five decades, that is a significant technology shift. The same approach is being applied to newer thruster designs that go into GPS satellites, Orion spacecraft, and the Roman Space Telescope.

Why the Split Matters

L3Harris decided to divide its space businesses along market lines. Missile propulsion is faster-growing and more directly tied to defense budgets that are expanding worldwide. Space propulsion is a longer-cycle business with deep NASA and military contracts, but it does not offer the same near-term revenue acceleration. Separating the two lets each business pursue investors who want a different risk profile.

Kristin Houston, who led the business units inside L3Harris, is now Rocketdyne's chief executive. Houston spent 16 years at Boeing in engineering and program management before joining L3Harris, and she has been running the space propulsion business since the Aerojet acquisition. She said the independence lets the company move faster and make decisions closer to the customer.

Current Programs and Outlook

Rocketdyne's active programs span national security, civil space, and commercial launch. It supplies propulsion for GPS and Wideband Global Satcom military satellites, NASA's Orion crew capsule, the Roman Space Telescope, and the NOAA GeoXO weather satellite program. The company also makes datalinks for Maxar's WorldView Legion imaging satellites and radioisotope power systems for the Dragonfly mission to Titan.

AE Industrial already has a space portfolio that includes Firefly Aerospace, Redwire, and York Space Systems. Adding Rocketdyne gives the firm a piece of every major U.S. launch architecture, fromULA's Vulcan to NASA's deep-space probes. Whether that portfolio strategy translates into better technology investment remains to be seen, but Rocketdyne's heritage hardware and 3D-printed manufacturing give it credibility that few launch suppliers can match.

The company is headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, with additional facilities in Ohio, California, and Washington state. Roughly 430 of its 1,300 employees are engineers and scientists.