Rocket Engine H-2038

Engine

Stationed at the Evergreen Aviation And Space Museum, this Rocketdyne H1A Rocket Engine is in great condition. Numbered H-2038, inventory number A19700286000, the engine is on loan from the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.

Before coming part of the Smithsonian collection, Engine H-2038 was provided to Wernher Von Braun on a weekly basis concerning projects at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. These notes have been added here.

FOr those looking for a summary, the history of H-2038 is said to be:

H-1 ENGINE – Engine H-2038 has been selected for a quality assurance teardown inspection to determine the ageing effects of hardware and soft goods in order to evaluate the proposed one year extension of engine service life. This obsolete 188K engine was delivered in October 1963. It has the same basic seal configuration and materials as the present 200K and 205K engines in the field. 

The engine was recently subjected to an electrical and mechanical checkout, hot fired, passed receiving inspection, and is now in process of teardown inspection at MSFC. Approximately 50% of the seals have been removed to date and visually appear to be in good condition. Laboratory analysis of the seals will begin next week. Metal components of the engine are also being inspected and analyzed for possible ageing effects. The quality assurance teardown inspection will be repeated on two other obsolete engines — one is scheduled for May 1968 and the other for May 1969.

The Smithsonian has a great writeup of this rocket:

It is interesting to note that the H-1 liquid-fuel rocket engine was the first stage of the Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B launch vehicles. These early Saturn rockets were used to develop the technologies that would become the precursors to the Saturn V which took humans to the Moon in the Apollo program. The Saturn 1 and 1B variants 1st stages were fitted with eight H-1 engines.

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/rocket-engine-liquid-fuel-h-1a-0

1 Comment on "Rocket Engine H-2038"

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