Aerojet conducts test firing of rocket engine

HANCOCK COUNTY — Aerojet, a GenCorp company, along with NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation, has conducted a successful ground test firing of an AJ26-62 flight engine that will power Orbital’s Taurus II medium-class space launch vehicle.

The test was conducted at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.

Aerojet’s AJ26 engine is an oxidizer-rich, staged-combustion LO2/kerosene engine that achieves very high performance in a lightweight compact package. Based on the NK-33 engine, originally designed and produced in Russia for the Russian N1 lunar launch vehicle, the liquid-fuel AJ26 will provide boost for the first stage of the Taurus II launch vehicle.