Liquid oxygen in the context of "Rocketdyne S-3D"

Falcon 9 is a partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, and the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on October 8, 2012. In 2020, it became the first commercial rocket to launch humans to orbit. The Falcon 9 has been noted for its reliability and high launch cadence, with 568 successful launches, two in-flight failures, one partial failure and one pre-flight destruction.

The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payload to a predetermined speed and altitude, after which the second stage accelerates the payload to its target orbit. The booster is capable of landing vertically to facilitate reuse. This feat was first achieved on flight 20 in December 2015. As of December 2, 2025, SpaceX has successfully landed Falcon 9 boosters 526 times. Individual boosters have flown as many as 31 flights. Both stages are powered by SpaceX Merlin engines, using cryogenic liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) as propellants.

Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) and French Space Agency (CNES) and manufactured by a consortium of European companies, led by the prime contractor ArianeGroup. As part of the Ariane rocket family, it is operated by Arianespace, replacing the Ariane 5. The project's primary contributors were France (55.3%), Germany (21%) and Italy (7.6%), with the remaining work distributed among ten other participating countries.

This two-stage rocket utilizes liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (hydrolox) engines. The first stage features an upgraded Vulcain engine from Ariane 5, while the second uses the Vinci engine, designed specifically for this rocket. The Ariane 62 variant uses two P120C solid rocket boosters, while Ariane 64 uses four. The P120C booster is shared with Europe's other launch vehicle, and is an improved version of the P80 used on the original Vega.

The PGM-19 Jupiter was the first nuclear armed, medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was a liquid-propellant rocket using RP-1 fuel and LOX oxidizer, with a single Rocketdyne LR79-NA (model S-3D) rocket engine producing 150,000 lbf (670 kN) of thrust. It was armed with the 1.44 Mt (6.0 PJ) W49 nuclear warhead. The prime contractor was the Chrysler Corporation.

The Jupiter was originally designed by the US Army, which was looking for a highly accurate missile designed to strike enemy states such as China and the Soviet Union. The US Navy also expressed an interest in the design as an SLBM but left the collaboration to work on their solid-fuel Polaris. Jupiter retained the short, squat shape intended to fit in submarines.

Rocket propellant is used as a reaction mass ejected from a rocket engine to produce thrust. The energy required can either come from the propellants themselves, as with a chemical rocket, or from an external source, as with ion engines.

Cabin pressurization is a process in which conditioned air is pumped into the cabin of an aircraft or spacecraft in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for humans flying at high altitudes. For aircraft, this air is usually bled off from the gas turbine engines at the compressor stage, and for spacecraft, it is carried in high-pressure, often cryogenic, tanks. The air is cooled, humidified, and mixed with recirculated air by one or more environmental control systems before it is distributed to the cabin.

The first experimental pressurization systems saw use during the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1940s, the first commercial aircraft with a pressurized cabin entered service. The practice would become widespread a decade later, particularly with the introduction of the British de Havilland Comet jetliner in 1949. However, two catastrophic failures in 1954 temporarily grounded the Comet worldwide. These failures were investigated and found to be caused by a combination of progressive metal fatigue and aircraft skin stresses caused from pressurization. Improved testing involved multiple full-scale pressurization cycle tests of the entire fuselage in a water tank, and the key engineering principles learned were applied to the design of subsequent jet airliners.

The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the three RS-25 main engines in the orbiter. The ET was jettisoned just over 10 seconds after main engine cut-off (MECO) and it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. Unlike the Solid Rocket Boosters, external tanks were not re-used. They broke up before impact in the Indian Ocean (or Pacific Ocean in the case of direct-insertion launch trajectories), away from shipping lanes and were not recovered.

RP-1 (Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) and similar fuels like RG-1 and T-1 are highly refined kerosene formulations used as rocket fuel. Liquid-fueled rockets that use RP-1 as fuel are known as kerolox rockets. In their engines, RP-1 is atomized, mixed with liquid oxygen (LOX), and ignited to produce thrust. Developed in the 1950s, RP-1 is outwardly similar to other kerosene-based fuels like Jet A and JP-8 used in turbine engines but is manufactured to stricter standards. While RP-1 is widely used globally, the primary rocket kerosene formulations in Russia and other former Soviet countries are RG-1 and T-1, which have slightly higher densities.

Compared to other rocket fuels, RP-1 provides several advantages with a few tradeoffs. Compared to liquid hydrogen, it offers a lower specific impulse, but can be stored at ambient temperatures, has a lower explosion risk, and although its specific energy is lower, its higher density results in greater energy density. Compared to hydrazine, another liquid fuel that can be stored at ambient temperatures, RP-1 is far less toxic and carcinogenic.

Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to launch payloads for the United States Department of Defense, NASA, and commercial customers, Atlas V is the longest-serving active rocket in the United States.

Each Atlas V vehicle consists of two main stages. The first stage is powered by a single Russian-made RD-180 engine that burns kerosene and liquid oxygen. The Centaur upper stage uses one or two American-made Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engines that burn liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Strap-on solid rocket boosters (SRBs) are used in several configurations. Originally equipped with AJ-60A SRBs, the vehicle switched to Graphite-Epoxy Motor (GEM 63) boosters beginning in November 2020, except for flights in the Boeing Starliner program. Standard payload fairings measure either 4.2 m (14 ft) or 5.4 m (18 ft) in diameter, with multiple available lengths.