The Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power business unit of Boeing successfully completed hot-fire testing of an RS-88 rocket engine at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The 50,000-pound-thrust engine was designed and built by Boeing for use on Lockheed Martin's Pad Abort Demonstration (PAD) vehicle, scheduled for launch in late 2005. The vehicle will carry four RS-88 engines. A series of 16 hot-fire tests were conducted adding up to 53 seconds of firing, including multiple full-duration six-second burns.

"This is a significant milestone in the development and demonstration of the PAD propulsion system," said Terry Lorier, Rocketdyne's TA-10 propulsion program manager. "The entire NASA/Rocketdyne/Lockheed-Martin team has done a great job in successfully completing the engine and performing this test on schedule."

The liquid oxygen and alcohol powered thruster was originally designed by Rocketdyne under NASA's BANTAM program and has been modified for application to the Lockheed-Martin PAD vehicle. Critical Design Review of the PAD propulsion module is planned for later this month.