This Redmond company just developed a highly efficient engine that could take us to deep space

Aug 31, 2015, 2:02pm PDT Updated Aug 31, 2015, 2:36pm PDT

Steve Wilhelm Staff Writer Puget Sound Business Journal

 

NASA image

This satellite will test the new "green propellant" engines developed by Aerojet… more

A pioneering Seattle-area outer space company has developed a new kind of deep space rocket engine that is 50 percent more fuel efficient than current designs.

And as a bonus, the fuel the new Aerojet Rocketdyne engine uses isn’t toxic.

Aerojet Rocketdyne has for decades in Redmond built small rocket engines to guide satellites and deep space probes, but most of those have been fueled by hydrazine. This fuel is so toxic that people handling it must wear full environmental suits.

Now, in building new engines that can accommodate "green" rocket fuel, the 400-person Redmond unit of $1.6 billion Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AJRD), is in a strong position to build many of the new engines in the future.

At least at first, the engines are likely to be used by companies, such as Tukwila-based SpaceFlight Industries and Redmond-based Planetary Resources, on the guidance systems for smaller satellites that get sent to space.

If it becomes popular with satellite companies, the technology could help support the region's growing outer space industry.

“This is absolutely a promising technology,” said Jeff Foust, senior staff writer for Space News, who reported on Aerojet project. “Aerojet is well positioned with the technology to apply that in the future.”

The new so called "AF-M315E fuel," which was developed by the U.S. Air Force, can be handled by people in shirtsleeves, said Roger Myers, executive director of advanced in-space programs for Aerojet Rocketdyne in Redmond.

“Hydrazine has many useful properties for spacecraft propulsion, and finding a non-toxic alternative was a big challenge for the last 25 years,” Myers said. “We have partnered with the Air Force and NASA for the last 15 years to develop the rocket and propulsion system technologies to use that propellant on actual spacecraft.”

In a release, NASA referred to the new fuel as “green,” primarily because it isn’t extremely poisonous.

While green doesn’t mean the new fuel is made from organic soybeans, the fact that it’s not virulently toxic is a big step, Foust said.

“Hydrazine is really difficult to handle,” he said.

But the technology has come with challenges, specifically that the new engines operate “several hundred degrees” hotter than hydrazine engines, Myers said.

Developing the needed metal alloys and manufacturing techniques was a key breakthrough for Aerojet Rocketdyne, but the new engines still have to be proven in the rigors of outer space.

NASA plans to do just that in 2016, when it tests Aerojet Rocketdyne engines with the AF-M315E fuel in a test satellite orbiting Earth.

“That’s the whole purpose of this mission,” Foust said. “It’s to provide an in-space demonstration of this propulsion system, and see how well it works, and if there are any other issues with this aspect of the spacecraft.”