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The marker. Aerial view.

It reads


Rocketdyne

1956 — 1968

This memorial is dedicated to the men and women of Rocketdyne Neosho, whose tireless efforts and relentless pursuit of quality resulted in the world's finest liquid rocket engines. Neosho's engines powered Jupiter, Redstone, Mercury, Atlas, Gemini and Apollo launch vehicles into safe, successful missions, including the first landing on the moon.

The city of Neosho thanks you for your contributions to mankind and the United States space program.


I'm a bit skeptical regarding production of Redstone engines, as ground was not broken for the plant until April 21, 1956, which would seem to be a bit late for the production of Redstone engines. Various references (Rocketdyne: Powering Humans into Space, Missiles and Rockets magazine) refer to production of Atlas, Jupiter, and Thor missile engines at Neosho, but only refer to production of Redstone engines at Rocketdyne's various California plants and testing at Santa Susana and White Sands. Spacetown USA lacks any photos of Redstone engines being manufactured or tested. Additionally, this plant was built by the Air Force, and Redstone was an Army missile (the Jupiter also started out as an Army missile but was transferred to the Air Force; additionally, the Thor, Jupiter, and Atlas booster thrust chambers were virtually identical).

Similarly, Gemini was launched on the Titan II, which was powered by LR-87 engines, manufactured by Aerojet rather than Rocketdyne. I know that Rocketdyne produced the thrusters used on the Gemini spacecraft; I suppose Neosho could have manufactured these thrusters, although again I've not come across any evidence that such production took place in Neosho.

 
Rocketdyne Marker in Big Spring Park at Neosho Missouri
Time picture taken Sat Apr 9 15:17:46 2016
Location picture taken Big Spring Park
Neosho, MO
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