Aerojet Donates Rocket Engine to Discovery Museum

SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 13, 1999 -- An Aerojet Titan II rocket engine, once strapped to the base of a nuclear ICBM in a Kansas missile silo, soon will be used to teach the marvels of rocketry to Sacramento children at the Discovery Museum.

Aerojet is donating the 3,500-pound, first-stage engine to the Discovery Museum's Challenger Learning Center. Starting this summer, youngsters in the center's space camp will get an up-close look at the size and complexity of a real rocket engine.

"We are happy to be able to turn a military asset into a useful tool to teach kids about rockets," said Gary Cook, Aerojet's Titan II program manager.

Aerojet built Stage 1 and Stage 2 engines for U.S. Air Force Titan II intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) between 1962 and 1967 and maintained the engines until the program ended in 1984. Fourteen of the missiles were later converted into Titan II space launch vehicles that are still used today for launching satellites. The Stage I engine is fueled by storable liquid propellants and generates 430,000 pounds of thrust.

The donated engine was built in 1963 and from 1967 to 1984 was part of an operational Air Force ICBM located in Kansas. After the Air Force deactivated Titan II ICBMs, the engine returned to Aerojet, where it was stored until being prepared for donation to the museum.

"It is an honor to contribute this engine to the Challenger Learning Center. The employees at Aerojet are proud to have preserved a small piece of history," said Richard Perez, a senior Titan engineer at Aerojet who led the effort to renovate the engine.

Aerojet co-founded and led fundraising and planning efforts for the Sacramento Challenger Learning Center, built in 1996, which teaches students how to solve problems using science and technology in hands-on, simulated space station and mission control environments.

The Titan II engine will initially be used for rocketry classes at the center, but eventually will be put on public display as well.

"This is the museum's first real rocket engine. As soon as we raise the necessary funds, we are planning to build a permanent structure to house it so that anyone can look at it and touch it," said Evangeline Higginbotham, executive director of the Discovery Museum.

Other local companies contributed to the project. BMB Corporation of Rancho Cordova painted the engine's large mounting structure; Lanstar Inway Trucking Inc. is providing a flatbed truck to carry the engine to its new home and Sacramento Valley Crane is donating its services to unload the engine at the museum.

Aerojet has given three other Titan II engines to museums: a Stage 2 engine to the Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley, Ariz., and Stage 1 and 2 engines to the General Thomas P. Stafford Museum in Weatherford, Okla.

Aerojet continues to supply new Stage 1 and 2 engines to Lockheed Martin for the Air Force's Titan IV rocket, which is used to launch a variety of military, commercial and NASA payloads.

Aerojet, a GenCorp company, is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader principally serving the space electronics, missile and space propulsion, and smart munitions and armaments markets. Aerojet's Web site address is http://www.aerojet.com.

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