Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] on Monday said it has successfully developed and static-fire tested the Zeus 1 large solid rocket motor that will be used by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions
[KTOS] for the launch vehicle stages of its research, hypersonic and ballistic missile targets.
The test met or exceeded all performance specifications, confirming the design, the companies said.
Development of the commercial Zeus 1 rocket was co-funded by both companies. The solid rocket motor was developed at Aerojet’s facilities in Huntsville, Ala., and manufactured and tested at its facility in Camden, Ark.
Aerojet is also manufacturing the Zeus 2 solid rocket motor for Kratos and will test it in Camden later this year.
“This test validated the robustness of our innovative motor design for an affordable hypersonic application and further demonstrated our large solid rocket motor capabilities at Camden, where we support multiple industry customers to power various defense programs,” Eileen Drake, president and CEO of Aerojet, said in a statement.
Kratos previously said that the Zeus 1 provides substantial improvement over similar legacy solid rocket motors and allow the use of existing payload designs and launch infrastructure while also being able to integrate new payloads. These features will allow Kratos’ customers to “fly more often, faster, and farther, using fewer stages, at a substantially reduced cost,” it said.
Kratos also said the Zeus motors complement its investment in the Erinyes hypersonic “flyer” test vehicle that is expected to debut in early 2024, and the follow-on Dark Fury hypersonic system.