Last year, the Air Force Research Laboratory's rocket propulsion division, said that it had designed, printed, built and hot fired the first single-block rocket-engine thrust chamber additively manufactured using a laser powder directed energy deposition, or DED, process. DED is an additive manufacturing process in which the device injects metal powder into focused beams of high-power laser in highly controlled atmospheric conditions, the Air Force said. (U.S. Air Force Photo)
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Aerospace Systems Directorate at Edwards AFB, Calif., wants to gauge the breadth of innovation for future missile propulsion under AFRL’s Rocket Lab Hermes project, which may award contracts up to $250 million…