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The 260: The Largest Solid Rocket Motor Ever TestedAerojet in the mid 1960s, under contract to NASA, built and static hot fire tested the largest solid rocket motor (SRM) in history for the purpose of demonstrating the feasibility of utilizing large SRMs for space exploration. This program successfully fabricated two high strength steel chambers, loaded each with approximately 1,68 million pounds of propellant, and static test fired these giants with their nozzles up from an underground silo located adjacent to the Florida everglades. Maximum thrust and total impulse in excess of 5,000,000 lbf and 3,470,000,000 lbf-sec were achieved. Flames from the second firing, conducted at night, were seen over eighty miles away. For comparative purposes: the thrust developed was nearly 100 times that of a Minuteman III second stage and the 260 in.-dia cross-section was over 3 times that of the Space Shuttle SRM.
Document ID
20000033816
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Crimmins, P.
(GenCorp Aerojet Sacramento, CA United States)
Cousineau, M.
(GenCorp Aerojet Sacramento, CA United States)
Rogers, C.
(GenCorp Aerojet Sacramento, CA United States)
Shell, V.
(GenCorp Aerojet Sacramento, CA United States)
Date Acquired
September 7, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1999
Subject Category
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Report/Patent Number
AIAA Paper 99-2951
Meeting Information
Meeting: 35th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: June 20, 1999
End Date: June 24, 1999
Sponsors: Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., American Society for Electrical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS3-6284
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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