Additive manufacturing

We’ve all heard the cliché, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Aerojet Rocketdyne is happily violating that maxim by creating an additional version of the venerable RL10 upper stage engine, a 60-year-old design that’s pushed some of history’s most storied spacecraft to orbit and beyond. Why is the company confident it will work? Keith Button has the story.

For every spacecraft that NASA and commercial space companies want to launch to low-Earth orbit and beyond, thousands of tiles must be manufactured to ensure these vehicles land more or less unscathed from the searing temperatures of plowing into the atmosphere. A Colorado company may have devised a way to make tiles more quickly and more cheaply. Keith Button learned about the upcoming laboratory tests that could be a turning point.

Flying a 3D printer on a satellite could lay the groundwork for the in-space manufacturing of large hardware that otherwise would not survive launch nor fit inside a rocket’s fairing. Adam Hadhazy walks through the mission and its motivations.