EDWARDS ROCKET TESTER READY TO RUMBLE AGAIN.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer A 26-story, concrete-and-steel test stand idle for 25 years is once again ready to shake Leuhman Ridge with tests of large rocket engines. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Thursday for Test Stand 1A, used in the 1960s to test rocket Noun 1. test rocket - a rocket fired for test purposes research rocket, test instrument vehicle rocket, projectile - any vehicle self-propelled by a rocket engine engines for the Apollo moon program and refurbished to support tests for a new rocket program aimed at dramatically lowering the costs of putting military satellites into space. ``This test stand is able to test the largest rocket engines we ever built or plan on building,'' said Robert Drake, an Air Force test engineer who oversaw the $6.7 million renovation project. The stand's first customer will be the Boeing Co., which plans to bring a rocket engine in for testing in January. Boeing plans to conduct ``several hundred firings'' at the stand over the next two years in its bid to develop the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program was a United States government, primarily a Department of Defense–sponsored effort to develop at least one family of space launch vehicles, that would meet the long term needs of the military and fulfill commercial . The EELV EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle EELV End-Expiratory Lung Volume EELV Extended Expendable Launch Vehicle is a multiyear Air Force program intended to reduce the cost of launching a payload (1) Refers to the "actual data" in a packet or file minus all headers attached for transport and minus all descriptive meta-data. In a network packet, headers are appended to the payload for transport and then discarded at their destination. into space from nearly $12,000 per pound to about $6,000 per pound. Boeing is competing with Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. to develop the EELV. Boeing's Rocketdyne Division's EELV entry is the RS-68 engine, which will be fueled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. It is a common liquid rocket fuel for rocket applications. In the aerospace industry, its name is often abbreviated to LH2 or LH2. . It generates 650,000 pounds of thrust and is expected to be 30 percent more efficient than conventional liquid-oxygen and kerosene-fueled rocket engines. For the tests, a rocket engine will be bolted into place while it is fired. After each test, excess fuel will be burned through a ``flare stack'' on the test stand. ``The flare will go 2,000 feet high,'' Drake said. ``When we do that at night it will be quite spectacular.'' The stand was built in the 1950s to support the development of the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile intercontinental ballistic missile: see guided missile. . Destroyed in an accident, it was rebuilt in the 1960s to support the Apollo program. Although the test stand hasn't been used in 25 years, it was well-preserved in the desert's dry climate, said Lee Meyer, acting director of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Propulsion Directorate, commonly known at Edwards as the rocket lab. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) This RS-68 rocket engine will be the first tested on Test Stand 1A at Edwards in 25 years. Jeff Goldwater/Daily News |
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