New Boeing hydrogen rocket could undercut Russian launch vehicles

Published: 8/23/1999

The days of commercial success enjoyed by Soviet-era rockets in thrusting the world's satellites into orbit may be drawing to a close. Boeing is now testing a new hydrogen-powered rocket engine: the RS-68. The new engine was conceived specifically for the rapidly growing commercial market for satellite launching vehicles. Dan Beck, project spokesman for Boeing, says the RS-68 is designed to be reliable, cheap and quick to build, and simple to operate. He claims that it is also the first large liquid-fuelled rocket engine that has been developed in the USA in a generation. According to Beck, the RS-68 will power the Delta Four rocket system, whose initial launch is scheduled for early in 2001. It will replace Boeing's existing Delta rocket systems: Delta Two and Delta Three. Beck predicts that Delta Four will trouble for Ukraine's currently popular, heavy-lifting Zenit rocket, powered by its kerosene-fueled RD-180 engine. Ukraine inherited the Zenit stockpile as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union. So far, Zenits have found steady and lucrative work abroad doing the heavy lifting for commercial launch vehicles. The rockets have been a major moneyspinner for Ukraine. Zenit customers include Boeing's aerospace competitor, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Boeing itself, which uses the Zenit to power its new oceangoing Sea Launch operation, based in Southern California. Sea Launch is an international mobile launching venture, whose partners include Ukraine's KB Yuzhnoye/Po Yuzhmash and Russia's RSC-Energia. The Ukraine partner provides the first two booster stages of the launch vehicle; the Moscow-based partner provides the upper stage booster and its integration with the launch vehicle itself. In contrast to Boeing's RS-68, the Zenit rocket system is a product of the Cold War and need to carry out Cold War space missions. While conceding that the Zenit .s RD-180 engine is reliable and powerful, Boeing believes that the Zenit will lose its current low-cost advantage, once its current stock of engines is depleted and new models must be designed, developed and built. Beck claims that the RS-68 engine has already generated more lifting power than the Zenit or any other rocket, and with only one-tenth of the parts that went into the same company's engine used to power the Space Shuttle. According to Beck, today's commercial and government satellites are getting bigger and heavier, so requiring more powerful launch vehicles, such Boeing's Delta Four. Boeing acquired the initial technology for the rocket engine a few years ago, when it bought Rockwell International and its Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power subsidiary. Rocketdyne is the nation's largest builder of rocket engines and controls about half the current market. The new engine is being built by at Rocketdyne .s plant in the Los Angeles suburb of Canoga Park. Beck claims that Boeing's ability to coordinate all these separate resources moved the rocket project along much faster than would have been the case under an independent Rockwell. According to Beck, the increased resources provided by Boeing will produce a finished rocket system in about half the time that it took Rocketdyne to produce the Space Shuttle's current, highly reliable rocket engine. The stakes in this competition are high. Some estimates put the market for building and launching commercial and government satellites at more than $60 billion.

Article ID: 777