Jim Cast

Headquarters, Washington, D.C. August 22, 1990

(Phone: 202/453-8536)

Jerry Berg
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 205/544-0034)

RELEASE: 90-113

ADVANCED LAUNCH SYSTEM ROCKET ENGINE DEFINED

A government-industry board has completed a key milestone

with its decision defining the type of rocket engine which will
be designed and built to power the NASA/U.S. Air Force Advanced
Launch System (ALS). The two candidates were the gas generator
power cycle, similar to the J-2 engine employed on the second and
third stages of the Saturn moon rockets, and the closed expander
power cycle, similar to the RL-10 engine used in the Saturn I and
the Centaur upper stage. The decision went to the gas generator
cycle.

The selection by the ALS Space Transportation Main Engine

cycle selection board was based on work accomplished in two
phases. First, three ALS engine contractors performed studies
defining and evaluating candidate designs. Then, they reported
to a joint government-industry engine cycle technical assessment
team and joint senior review board. Those panels chose the most
promising design features for the engine from reports submitted
by the three contractors, providing a comparable basis on which
to make the engine cycle decision.

The Advanced Launch System program will provide, by the year

2000, a dependable, reliable, high-capacity national launch
capability. It is planned as a family of launch vehicles capable
of delivering a wide range of payloads into low Earth orbit with
an order-of-magnitude cost reduction from today's launch costs.

In support of these ALS objectives, the board's decision was

based on factors such as production cost, reliability,
producibility, operations, size, development effort, risk and
performance.

- more -
- 2 -

The gas-generator type of engine has been widely used since

early in the history of liquid-fueled rocket development and has
benefitted from many technology advances over the years. Its
basic elements are:

o A combustion chamber which generates the engine's thrust

by exhausting combustion gases at high velocity through
the nozzle.

o Two turbopumps, which take liquid fuel and liquid oxidizer

from tanks at rather low pressure, feed the fuel through
cooling circuits, and inject both propellants into the
combustion chamber at high pressure.

o Turbines, powered by hot gas, to spin the turbopumps.

o A gas-generator device to provide the hot gas to the

turbine(s). It generates gas by the combustion of a small
quantity of liquid fuel and oxidizer, diverted from the
main flow.

Definition studies of the Space Transportation Main Engine

have determined that such an engine can be developed within the
parameters established for the ALS. It will use liquid oxygen
and liquid hydrogen as propellants, be approximately 7 feet in
diameter and 12.5 feet long, and weigh about 7,000 pounds.
Supplying approximately 600,000 pounds of thrust, it will power
the ALS core stage and the launch system's booster stage.

The Space Transportation Main Engine selection board

consists of top managers from NASA's Lewis Research Center,
Cleveland; the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.;
the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex.; and the Stennis Space
Center, Bay St. Louis, Miss.; representatives of the Air
Force/NASA ALS Joint Program Office; and the presidents and chief
operating officers of the three contractors currently conducting
definition studies for the engine. The 12-member board is
chaired by Marshall Space Flight Center Director Jack Lee.

The engine definition contractors are Aerojet, the aerospace

segment of GenCorp; United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney; and the
Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International. They are working
under parallel competitive study contracts and have agreed to
pursue the formation of a teaming arrangement, which will reduce
the cost and risks of the ALS engine development program.

The studies show both engine cycles would provide

essentially the same projected cost and reliability, while on
many of the detailed points of comparison, the gas generator was
favored.
- more -
- 3 -

The selection of a gas-generator cycle engine, explained

Board Chairman Lee, will pose a lower development risk than the
closed expander engine cycle. "That advantage will give us more
freedom to concentrate on achieving optimum reliability,
producibility and production cost, rather than overcoming
development obstacles," Lee said.

Future work on the Space Transportation Main Engine will

include preliminary design beginning this fall, detailed design,
fabrication, and test of major engine components, and a prototype
engine program scheduled to begin in 1992.
- end -

NASA news releases and other information are available

electronically on CompuServe and GEnie, the General Electric
Network for Information Exchange. For information on CompuServe,
call 1-800/848-8199 and ask for representative 176. For
information on GEnie, call 1-800/638-9636.

TO: MDS/PRA Group

1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100
Washington, D.C. 20036

DATE & TIME: AUGUST 22, 1990

ORDERED BY: Edward Campion

NASA Headquarters/LMD
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20546 PHONE: 202/453-8400
PROJECT TITLE: Release No: 90-113

PRINT ORDER: 2300

PRINTING: Camera Ready, lst pg on NASA logo, other pages plain

ENCLOSE & MAIL: Release of 3 pages

MAIL DATE: AUGUST 23, 1990

EXTRA COPIES: Deliver specified quanities to locations below:

50 copies 275 copies 75 copies

-------------------- ------------------- -----------------
National Press Club NASA Mailroom NASA Newsroom
13th floor newsrack NASA Headquarters NASA Headquarters
National Press Building 600 Independ. Ave, SW 400 Maryland Ave, SW
529 14th Street, NW Room A16 Room 6043
Washington, DC 20045 Washington, DC 20546 Washington, DC 20546

MEDIA SUMMARY OPTION: Name-by-name media summary - 1 copy

CLIENT COMPUTER LISTS: Run the following:

LS-CA, LS-FA, LS-GA*27E LS-KA,

TYPE OF RELEASE & PIX: General news X 21:T-23:T

PUT ADDRESSING ON: Self-mailer

MEDIA SELECTION:

END OF ORDER FORM

END OF TRANSMISSION