Date: 1958
Country of Origin: United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 34 5/8 in. wide x 70 13/16 in. long x 70 5/8 in. diameter (87.88 x 179.83 x 179.32cm)
Other (ring): 14 1/2 in. wide (36.83cm)
Other (pump): 61 in. wide (154.94cm)
Materials:
Motor and injectors, 4130 steel.
The separate pump is mainly of non-ferrous metal, probably stainless steel. The ring is of aluminum while The screws are of steel as is the manifold pipe.
This is a Redstone missile engine, made by the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International, accompanied by a separate pump attached to one of the missile's structural rings. The engine with its pump was flown on a Redstone vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 11, 1958 and then recovered near the coast of Jamaica.
Developed beginning in 1950, the Redstone was this country's first large-scale operational liquid propellant missile. On January 31, 1958, a modified version of the Redstone engine propelled the Jupiter-C launch vehicle that orbited the U.S.'s first artificial satellite, Explorer 1. This type of engine also launched the first American into space, Alan B. Shepard, aboard the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) on May 5, 1961.
Transferred by the U.S. Army to the Smithsonian Institution in 1964.
Transferred from U.S. Army
