RL10 Engine

RL10 Propulsion System

More than half a century of powering space exploration and national security

For more than fifty years, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RL10 engine has played a vital role in placing hundreds of military, government and commercial satellites into Earth’s orbit, and has helped send spacecraft to explore every planet in our solar system, including Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, the first two spacecraft to reach interstellar space.

Today, multiple models of the RL10 carry the engine’s legacy forward as the launch industry’s “workhorse” by powering the upper stages of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. Additional variants of the RL10 have been selected to provide upper stage propulsion for the OmegA rocket being developed by Northrop Grumman and the Vulcan rocket being developed by United Launch Alliance.

RL10 engines also are slated to help power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that is in development to lift astronauts to deep-space destinations aboard the Orion spacecraft. A single RL10 will power the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage during the first un-crewed test flight of SLS and Orion, known as Exploration Mission-1. Four RL10 engines will support the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage that is being developed for future versions of SLS.

Aerojet Rocketdyne is also working to qualify a modern version of the engine known as the RL10C-X that will include major components built using 3-D printing technology. Incorporating 3-D printing into the manufacturing process will reduce lead times and cost while maintaining the outstanding performance and reliability customers have come to expect.