please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message aerojet former type manufacture fate merged successor aerojet rocketdyne founded 1942 defunct 2013 headquarters rancho cordova california united states products rocket and missile propulsion parent gencorp website www.aerojet.com aerojet was an american rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in rancho cordova california with divisions in redmond washington orange and gainesville in virginia and camden arkansas . aerojet was owned by gencorp . in 2013 aerojet was merged by gencorp with the former pratt & whitney rocketdyne to form aerojet rocketdyne . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 founding 1.2 general tire 1.3 1990s 1.4 recent history 2 florida facility and canal 3 epa superfund sites 4 products 4.1 rockets 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit aerojet developed from a 1936 meeting hosted by theodore von k rm n at his home . joining von k rm n who was at the time director of guggenheim aeronautical laboratory at the california institute of technology were a number of caltech professors and students including rocket scientist and astrophysicist fritz zwicky and explosives expert jack parsons all of whom were interested in the topic of spaceflight . the group continued to meet from time to time but its activities were limited to discussions as opposed to experimentation . their first design was tested on august 16 1941 consisting of a small cylindrical solid fuel motor attached to the bottom of a plane . takeoff distance was shortened by half and the usaaf placed an order for experimental production versions . founding edit some aspects of the early operation of the company were described by k rm n in his autobiography 2 on march 19 1942 haley obtained our incorporation papers and the aerojet engineering corporation was launched . i was president ; malina was treasurer ; and haley was secretary . we had three vice presidents parsons summerfield and forman . we issued stock to ourselves and for a brief time haley seemed to own the entire corporation because being the only man in the group with cash he actually put up all the initial capital . we opened offices on east colorado street in pasadena ... we moved to ... 285 west colorado street ... thus began ... the world s largest manufacturer of rockets and propellants . in only twenty years it was to grow from six people with a capitalization of 1200 into a 700 million dollar a year business a staff of nearly 34 000 and a key role in the modern defense picture of the united states . 2 258 k rm n soon relinquished the presidency haley became aerojet s second president on august 26 1942 . he proved to be an incredible administrator . 2 259 the company expanded and required new facilities in october fifteen employees were drawing paychecks . by december we had expanded to about one hundred and fifty employees and in january 1943 we moved to azusa california . 2 260 in 1943 the army air forces finally placed a full order demanding that 2000 rockets be delivered before year s end . the difficulty of starting out in an industry with no history explains how the founders lost control unhappily for us no bank would lend us money ; bankers hadn t yet come to think of rocketry as a stable business . 2 315 in the spring of 1944 the officers instructed haley to seek out new sources of assistance . general tire was one of his clients and that company showed an interest in aerojet and began negotiations . in january 1945 general tire acquired half the stock for 75 000 . parsons and forman also sold their shares so that by october general tire had control of the majority of aerojet . 2 316 7 k rm n resisted the offers presented to him until in 1953 when a sizable scholarship fund was offered to be set up as a memorial to his sister josephine de karman . general tire edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message the company also invested in pure rocket research developing both a liquid fueled design and a new solid fueled design based on a rubber binding agent in partnership with general tire . in the immediate post war era aerojet downsized dramatically but their jato units continued to sell for commercial aircraft operating in hot and high conditions . by 1950 their research into the rubber binder had led to much larger engines and then to the development of the aerobee sounding rocket . aerobee was the first us designed rocket to reach space albeit not orbit and completed over 1 000 flights before it was retired in 1985 . aerojet designed and built a total of 1 182 engines for all four incarnations of the titan rockets which were used for civilian projects ranging from gemini s manned flights to solar system explorations including viking voyager and cassini . 3 the newly formed us air force used aerojet as the primary supplier on a number of their icbm projects including the titan and minuteman missiles . they also delivered propulsion systems for the us navy s submarine launched polaris missile . a new plant was set up in sacramento that took over most rocket construction while the original azusa offices returned primarily to research . one of azusa s major projects was the development of the infra red detectors for the defense support program satellites used to detect icbm launches from space . the new research arm was formed as aerojet electro systems corp. and after purchasing a number of ordnance companies aerojet ordnance was created as well . a new umbrella organization oversaw the three major divisions aerojet general . president kennedy s challenge to place a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s led to increased civilian work at aerojet . previously they had repeatedly lost contracts for large engines for the saturn and nova boosters being designed in the late 1950s often to their rival rocketdyne but in the end were selected to develop and build the main engine for the apollo command service module . in 1962 they were also selected to design a new upper stage engine to replace the cluster of five j 2s used on the saturn second stage in the post apollo era but work on their resulting m 1 design was ended in 1965 when it became clear the public s support for a massive space program was waning . similar work continued in the 1970s delivering the second stage motor for the mx missile the orbital maneuvering system oms for the space shuttle and the first us designed cluster bombs . a contract for 30 mm ammunition for the a 10 thunderbolt ii was so extensive that new branch plants were set up in downey and chino in 1978 . aerojet also purchased a number of other firms over this period and their plant in jonesborough tn developed the use of depleted uranium ordnance . to this day they are the primary supplier of these weapons . their electronics and ordnance divisions also collaborated on the sadarm 8 anti armor artillery round but this was never put into production . the 1980s saw a brief revival of the aerospace business during president reagan s strategic defense initiative program but the company shrank during the late 1980s and into the 1990s . 1990s edit as aerojet downsized many of their industrial plants were idled and the company looked for ways to capitalize them . their massive investment in chemical mixing equipment used to build their solid fuel rockets was later leased to third parties notably pharmaceutical companies under the name aerojet fine chemicals . the division was later sold . aerojet real estate was more direct in its actions leasing entire aerojet buildings and selling off undeveloped aerojet land . it owned approximately 12 600 acres 51 km2 located 15 miles 24 km east of downtown sacramento . citation needed the remaining research and development sections of aerojet were organized into the aerospace and defense division ads . they continued to develop and produce liquid fuel solid fuel and air breathing engines for strategic and tactical missiles precision strike missiles and interceptors required for missile defense . product applications for defense systems included strategic and tactical missile motors ; maneuvering propulsion systems ; attitude control systems ; and warhead assemblies used in precision weapon systems and missile defense as well as airframe structures required on the f 22 raptor aircraft and fire suppression systems for military and commercial vehicles . their space related products included liquid fuel engines for expendable and reusable launch vehicles upper stage engines satellite propulsion large solid boosters and integrated propulsion subsystems . aerojet qualified a 4.5 kw hall effect thruster electric propulsion system based on technology licensed from the busek corporation . 4 5 aerojet is under contract to lockheed martin to provide the first two shipsets of the new thruster system for the next generation advanced extremely high frequency aehf system a us air force program . 6 7 research into the next generation of advanced or green monopropellant engines met with mixed success in the 1990s . han engines developed under contract to the us air force and missile defense agency provided proof of concept . 8 9 10 11 recent history edit aerojet is currently owned by gencorp which is headquartered in rancho cordova california . gencorp was known as the general tire & rubber company until 1984 . from 2002 aerojet grew steadily to more than 3 500 employees in 2008 . aerojet s rocket engine for the delta ii second stage completed a record 268 successful mission launches on february 6 2009 since 1960 . nasa chose aerojet to provide the primary design and development of orion spacecraft propulsion systems for the constellation program . in november 2010 aerojet was selected by nasa for consideration for potential contract awards for heavy lift launch vehicle system concepts and propulsion technologies . 12 in july 2012 gencorp announced that it was buying aerojet s competitor pratt & whitney rocketdyne ; the acquisition was completed in 2013 . 13 14 florida facility and canal edit aerojet solid fuel technology was under consideration for use in apollo s saturn v first stages . in 1963 the u.s. air force provided aerojet general with 3 million in funding to start construction of a manufacturing and testing site several miles southwest of homestead florida . aerojet acquired the land for the plant less than five miles from everglades national park . a facility was constructed where the motors could be built and tested 25 21 45 n 80 33 38 w 25.362392 n 80.560649 w 25.362392 ; 80.560649 . sw 232nd avenue was renamed aerojet road . a monolithic 21 foot diameter 6.4 m rocket motor was designed which was too big to be transported by rail . a plan was devised where the rocket motors would be transported by barge to cape canaveral . to facilitate barges a canal was dug c 111 and a drawbridge installed for the u.s. highway 1 crossing at mile marker 116 25 17 23 n 80 26 41 w 25.289609 n 80.444786 w 25.289609 ; 80.444786 . this canal became the southernmost freshwater canal in southeast florida and was dubbed the aerojet canal . a concrete silo was constructed for the rocket motor 180 feet deep into the everglades . aerojet needed a cylindrical chamber that would withstand the force and power a space faring rocket would cause . aerojet