Missionaries Surrounded by Jeering Unbelievers: NASA Glenn Research Center's Rocket Engine Test Facility

摘要

Built in the mid-1950s for a modest $2.5 million, the Rocket Engine Test Facility (RETT) at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (now the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio was the largest sea level testing facility for high-energy rocket propellants in the United States. Unlike facilities at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and later the Marshall Space Flight Center, which were used for development, the RETF remained an experimental test facility throughout its almost three decades of existence. An important component laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the forerunner of NASA), the RETF used static test stands to explore liquid-fueled rocket engine propulsion approaches and components.