A decades-old rocket factory in Redmond, Wash., is due to be rebranded with a time-honored name: Rocketdyne.
If all goes according to plan, the facility will become part of a joint venture created under the terms of an $845 million deal involving L3Harris Technologies and AE Industrial Partners.
L3Harris took control of the Redmond facility in 2023 when it acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7 billion. Now L3Harris plans to sell a majority stake in its Space Propulsion and Power Systems business to AE Industrial, while retaining 40% ownership of the newly created Rocketdyne venture. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
L3Harris will retain full ownership of the business line focusing on RS-25 rocket engines. Those engines, derived from space shuttle technology and used on NASA’s Space Launch System, are primarily manufactured in California.
For decades, the Redmond facility has built propulsion systems for space vehicles ranging from NASA’s space shuttles to Mars rovers to the Artemis moon program. Redmond-built thrusters are due to be used on NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the upcoming Artemis 2 mission, which will send four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the moon and back.
The facility traces its lineage back to Rocket Research Co., which was founded by former Boeing engineers in 1960 in Seattle. Rocket Research relocated to the 80-acre Redmond campus in 1968 and has gone through a string of name changes and acquisitions since then.
According to a 2022 presentation for the Redmond Historical Society by Jack DeBoer, a program manager at the site, the Redmond facility has been managed through the years by Rockor, Olin Aerospace, Primex Technologies, General Dynamics, Aerojet, GenCorp and Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Because of its heritage, the Redmond operation could be regarded as the Seattle area’s oldest continuously operated facility exclusively dedicated to rocket production — as opposed to Boeing, which has played a leading role in aviation as well as space technology.
Today, more than 400 employees work at the Redmond campus. The sign at the entrance currently reads simply “L3Harris.”
The Rocketdyne name has its own tangled history: It was founded in California in 1955 as a division of North American Aviation and built the F-1 engines that were used on Saturn V rockets during the Apollo era.
It became part of Rockwell International in 1967 and was acquired in turn by Boeing in 1996 and by United Technologies in 2005. In 2013, Rocketdyne was sold to GenCorp, which merged it with Aerojet to form Aerojet Rocketdyne.
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