Rocket Lab Historic Documents

A collection of digitized historical documents, narrative histories, reference material, and technical reports related to the history of the Rocket Lab facility.
Histories
- NACA High Energy Propellant Research in 1950s (1971)
- Liquid Hydrogen as a Propulsion Fuel, 1945-1959
- NASA’s Hydrogen Outpost: The Rocket Systems Area at Plum Brook Station (2016)
- Ideas Into Hardware: A History of the Rocket Engine Test Facility (2004)
Presentations
- Rocket Research Talk at the NACA’s 1947 Inspection
- Rocket Research Talk at the NACA’s 1949 Inspection
- NACA Conference on Fuels (1948)
- Review of Rocket Research at Lewis (1952)
- High-Energy Rocket Propellant Talks at NACA Inspection (1957)
- Materials Research Talk at 1966 Inspection
- Cleaner Skies Presentation at 1973 Inspection
Facility
Rocket Lab Descriptions
- High Pressure Combustion Laboratory description (1946)
- Rocket Lab Overview (1957)
- Rocket Lab Description (1957)
- Rocket Lab Facility Data (1959)
- Rocket Lab Overview (1992)
- Rocket Lab Fact Sheets (2000s)
- Rocket Lab Test Schedules (1945-1950)
- Rocket Lab Renaming (1949-1950)
Cell Descriptions
- Rocket Lab Complex Layouts (1956-2000)
- Rocket Lab Facilities Manual (1991)
- Research Combustion Lab Facilities (1988)
- Rocket Lab Test Cell Descriptions (1993)
- Rocket Lab Space Combustion Facilities (1994)
- Cell 11 Mach 4 Rocket-powered Supersonic Tunnel (1958)
- Cell 11 Combustor Flame Flashback Apparatus (1985)
- Cell 11 Low Thrust Rocket Test Facility (1990)
- Cell 11 Laser Rayleigh and Raman Diagnostics for Small Hydrogen/oxygen Rockets (1993)
- Cell 21 Low Thrust Rocket Facility Description (1993)
- Cell 21 New Test Stands for Cells 21 and 22 (2002)
- Cell 22 A Versatile Rocket Engine Hot Gas Facility (1993)
- Cell 22 Combustion Research Facility for Testing Advanced Materials (2003)
- Cell 22 Characterizing the Chemical Stability of High Temperature Materials (2005)
- Cell 23 Combuster Test Facilities (1995)
- Cell23 Combustor Test Facility (1995)
- Cell 23 Fuel-Flexible Gas Turbine Combustor Flametube Facility (2004)
- Cell 32 Description (1993)
- Cell 32 A New Facility for Advanced Rocket Propulsion Research (2012)
- Cell 32 Chemical Propulsion Research Complex
- Scrubber description (1959)
Floor Plans
- Cell 11 and 12 Floor Plans (1956-2000)
- Cells 13 and 14 Floor Plans (1956-2000)
- Cells 21 and 22 Floor Plans (1956-2000)
- Cells 23 and 24 Floor Plans (1956-2000)
- Service Building Floor Plans (1956-2000)
- Instrument Building Floor Plans (1969-2000)
- Shop Building Floor Plans (1956-2000)
- Scrubber diagrams
Demolition
- Demolition Fact Sheet (2016)
- NASA Glenn Holds Public Meeting on Upcoming Demolition (2017)
- Public Meeting on Demolition of Rocket Lab (2018)
Test Reports
Ignition
- Starting of Rocket Engine at Conditions of Simulated Altitude (1950)
- Altitude Ignition of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines (1949)
Cooling
- Internal film cooling of a 1000lb ammonia and LOX engine (1951)
- Evaluation of Ablative Materials as Nozzle Sections (1966)
- Evaluation of Ablative Materials as Nozzle Sections (1969)
- Design and Testing of 1000-pound Thrust FLOX-Propane Ablative Engine (1969)
- Design of Injectors and Ablative Chambers for FLOX-Propane Engine (1969)
Screaming
- Combustion instability in an acid-heptane rocket (1951)
- Photographic investigation of combustion in a transparent engine (1953)
- Effect of Fuels on Screaming in 200-pound-thrust Liquid-oxygen Engine (1956)
High-Energy Propellants
- Investigation of the Diborane – Hydrogen Peroxide Combination (1948)
- Investigation of Liquid Diborane – Liquid Oxygen Combination (1949)
- Investigation of Liquid Fluorine – Liquid Diborane Combination (1951)
- Performance of chlorine trifluoride-hydrazine combination in 100lb engine (1949)
- Investigation of liquid fluorine and liquid diborane combination in 100lb engine (1951)
- Hydrogen-Fluorine and Hydrogen-Oxygen Research at Lewis (1961)
- Investigation of Liquid diborane and LOX combination in 100lb engine (1949)
- Investigation of liquid fluorine and liquid ammonia in a 100lb engine (1953)
- Performance of JP-4 fuel with FLOX mixtures in a 1000lb engine (1958)
- Experimental performance with a FLOX and JP-4 mixture (1955)
- Performance of Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Fluorine Regeneratively Cooled Engines (1959)
Alternative Fuels
- Ignition and Combustion of Metallized Propellants (1989)
- Subscale Powdered Aluminum and Oxygen Combustion (1993)
- Oxygen/RP-1/Aluminum Rocket Combustion Experiments (1995)
- Oxygen/RP-1/Aluminum Rocket Heat Transfer and Combustion (1996)
- Metallized Gelled Propellants in a Pulse Detonation Engine (2006)
- Carbon monoxide and oxygen ignition experiments (1990)
- Carbon monoxide and oxygen combustion experiments (1991)
- Heat transfer characteristics of carbon monoxide and oxygen engine (1993)
- Overview of Glenn’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission Thruster Testing (2014)
- Green Propellant Infusion Mission Program Development and Technology Maturation (2014)
- Green Propellant Infusion Mission Program Development (2014)
- NASA, Industry Test Additively Manufactured Rocket Engine Injector (2013)
Thrusters
- Temperature Effect on Thrust Buildup in Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets (1960)
- Performance of Bipropellant Fractional-Pound Thrusters (1968)
- Performance of a Water-Electrolysis Rocket (1969)
- 6670-Newton Attitude-Control Thruster using Hydrogen-Oxygen Propellant (1977)
- Design, Fabrication, and Test of a LOX/LCH4 RCS Igniter at NASA (2007)
- LOX-methane glow plug igniter tests (2009)
- Testing of Methane/Oxygen Catalytic Microtube Ignition System (2012)
Combustors
- Gas Turbine Combustor with Air Atomizing Fuel Injector System (1969)
- Effect of Diffuser Designs on an Experimental Turbojet Combustor (1971)
- Performance of Short Length Turbojet Combustor (1971)
- Combustor Liner Film Cooling in Free-Stream Turbulence (1971)
- Study of Spray Characteristics of a Airblast Atomizer (1985)
- Combustor Flame Flashback Report (1985)
- Fuel-rich, catalytic reaction experimental results (1991)
- Hydrogen/Air Fuel Nozzle Emissions Experiments (2000)
- Low emission hydrogen combustors using lean direct injection (2004)
Power Generation
- MHD Power Generator Facility – Tech Preview
- NASA Lewis H2-O2 MHD program (1974)
- Results and progress on the NASA Lewis H2-O2 MHD program (1976)
- Temperature distributions of a cesium-seeded hydrogen-oxygen supersonic free jet (1978)
- Lewis Pressurized, Fluidized-Bed Combustion Program–Data and Calculated Results (1982)
- Erosion/Corrosion of Airfoil Materials in the High-Velocity Effluent of a Pressurized Fluidized Coal Combustor (1978)
Single-Stage to Orbit
- X-33 Advanced Technology Demonstrator Fact Sheet
- Combustion Wave Ignition for Rocket Engines (1992)
- CWI Test Operational Readiness Review (1998)
- X-33 Combustion-Wave Ignition System Tested (1998)
- Hypersonic engine experiments in a high heat flux environment (1993)
- Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion SiC Recession Model (2009)
Reference
NASA
- National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) overview
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory history
- Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) summary
- X-33 Technology Demonstration
- Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) history
Glenn Research Center
- Center Names Evolve article
- Glenn Historic Facilities websites
- John Sloop biography
- Abe Silverstein biography
Technical
- Propellants background information
- Specific impulse description
- Combustor technology description
- Shuttle Liquid Flyback Booster Configuration Options (1980)
- Pulse detonation engine rocket engines summary
- Novel Rocket Fuel Spawned Ferrofluids article
- IHPRP Materials Development Plan briefing (2000)
- Silicon-carbide-based ceramic matrix composites
- Green Propellant Infusion Program mission page