Stennis Space Center, MS, USA
production facility
A Pratt & Whitney RS-68 rocket engine, designed
for the Delta IV family of expendable launch
vehicles, undergoes a test at Stennis Space
Center. The bell-nozzle RS-68 is a liquid
hydrogen-liquid oxygen booster engine. It was the
first new American booster engine developed in
over 25 years. Simplicity was the primary design
goal, resulting in 80 percent fewer parts than the
Space Shuttle Main Engine. Each engine costs
about $14 million to build. In 2006 NASA
announced that 5 RS-68 engines would be used
instead of SSMEs on the planned Cargo Launch
Vehicle. The cost with upgrades is $20 million per
engine.
