Country of Origin: United States of America
Dimensions:
3-D Test: 21 x 10.2 x 14.9cm (8 1/4 x 4 x 5 7/8 in.)
Materials:
Steel
This a section of an I-beam from the Vertical Test Stand No. 1 (VTS-1) of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory of Rocketdyne in the Santa Susana Mountains, California. VTS-1 was an important site used by Rocketdyne and its predecssor from the 1950s for the testing of the U.S.'s first large-scale liquid propellant rocket engines, starting with the Redstone missile engine.
The Redstone engine evolved in the engines for the Thor, Jupiter, and Atlas missiles, the engines for the Saturn V launch vehicle that took men to the Moon, and the Shuttle Main Engine. The VTS-1 was demolished in 1996 with the sign and other parts retrieved later. This object was donated in 1996 to the Smithsonian by Rocketdyne.
Gift of Rockwell International Corporation, Rocketdyne Division.
