If there was any doubt Huntsville is the rocket capital of the U.S., those doubts shattered when Aerojet Rocketdyne recently announced it will build its next-generation engine in the Rocket City.
This brings a $100 million capital investment and 800 new jobs to Huntsville with an estimated annual payroll impact of $50 to $60 million. It’s is a big boost to Huntsville’s already robust rocket economy and solidifies our position as the propulsion capital of the nation, and by default, the world.
Marshall Space Flight Center has been named NASA’s Center of Excellence for propulsion. On Redstone Arsenal, the Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space is headquartered here, performing 85 percent of our nation’s missile defense work. Companies like Boeing, Raytheon, Dynetics, Lockheed, ULA and many others are key players in the propulsion field with significant operations in our area.
Aerojet Rocketdyne’s propulsion portfolio includes a commercial satellite market as well as major support for the military. The company’s decision to consolidate and move east and west coast operations to Huntsville shows the strength of our highly skilled workforce and something more. In the world of propulsion, we engineer, we design, and we build – right here in Huntsville, Alabama.
The new state-of-the-art Aerojet Rocketdyne manufacturing facility will be built in the North Huntsville Industrial Park off of Pulaski Pike, right next door to Toyota’s engine production plant. Aerojet Rocketdyne’s newest engines, additive manufacturing, composites production and research & development are expected to be ready for production in mid-2019.
The North Huntsville Industrial Park is a 10-minute ride down Research Park Boulevard to Cummings Research Park and Redstone Arsenal’s Gate 9 entrance at I-565. We have hundreds of acres available in the North Huntsville Industrial Park to accommodate even more propulsion design and manufacturing, giving us another major research and manufacturing campus. We are actively recruiting business to this prime location, but, we are highly selective. We want the right industry that capitalizes on our smart, talent workforce. One that offers good paying jobs with benefits.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is here because of Huntsville’s outstanding role in research and defense technology. This project works all facets of our economy by marrying R&D with advanced manufacturing. We are both rocket scientists and rocket builders. And, we are the propulsion capital of the world.
For more information on Aerojet Rocketdyne’s announcement:
