This week in 2013, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center successfully hot fire tested a large 3-D printed rocket injector on Test Stand 116. During the test, liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen flowed through the injector into a combustion chamber, producing 10 times more thrust than any injector ever fabricated using additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing. A commercial company manufactured the injector using selective laser melting, which produced a powder of nickel-chromium alloy, or Inconel, in layers to make the complex injector with 28 elements for channeling and mixing fuel and oxidizer in just two pieces. A similar injector tested earlier had 115 parts. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)