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The marker. Aerial view. It reads
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. | ||||
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