11/19/2023 0 Comments Abandoned missile silo nevadaIn March 1965, two rocket chambers were delivered to the plant. Both motors used a propellant burning rate and nozzle size appropriate for the full-length design and were capable of about 1,600,000 kgf of thrust for 114 seconds. The chambers were designed in short length, meaning half the size of what the final product would be, hence the names given to the test rockets, SL-1 and SL-2. After much research, they decided to subcontract the fabrication of 260-inch-diameter, 24m long chambers to Sun Ship and Dry dock Company located in Chester, Pennsylvania. But once free of Earth’s orbit though, liquid fuel seemed to be the best route to go.Īerojet now needed a cylindrical chamber that would withstand the force and power and space-faring rocket would cause. Solid-fueled rockets were best favored in the initial launch, able to lift over 100,000 pounds of payload through the atmosphere. The canal would be used to barge the rockets from the facility to Cape Canaveral as well as barging the needed equipment in.Ī small debate arose on whether to use liquid-fuel rocket engines, solid-fuel rocket motors, or a combination of both. The C-111, now known as Aerojet Canal, was dug even though it was close to the Everglades National Park, as economic development of the region won in favor of any environmental conflicts the canal would cause. A proposal was made to dig a canal from the facility to Barnes Sound on the Atlantic Ocean. Air Force gave Aerojet General, a major rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer, $3 million to start construction of a manufacturing and testing site in Homestead.Īerojet acquired land for the plant, less than five miles from the Everglades National Park, paying $2.50 an acre per year for an annual lease with an option to buy up to 25,000 acres more at nickels on the dollar. In 1957, Sputnik was launched, being the first human-made object to orbit the Earth an event that sparked a space race of who can get to the moon first, between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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