News
April 14, 2025
Identical twins help Blue Origin shoot for the stars
Sisters Dayle and Claire Alexander, both Zucrow alumni, now work at Blue Origin as senior propulsion engineers responsible for the New Glenn rocket’s upper-stage BE-3U engines.
March 17, 2025
Switchable explosives: the future of energetics?
Zucrow Labs researchers have made a significant advancement in the field of energetics by creating a switchable explosive, which can be turned off to enhance safety during handling and transportation, and turned on to detonate when needed.
February 28, 2025
Zucrow Labs Annual Report 2024
It's time to take a look back at a remarkable 2024 at the world's largest academic propulsion lab.
January 29, 2025
Purdue and Rolls-Royce: safeguarding our future
For over 70 years, the Purdue and Rolls-Royce partnership has safeguarded national security and provided innovative solutions. Today, it continues to lead progress in critical fields, including advanced manufacturing, compressor and turbine technologies, and hybrid-electric and hypersonic propulsion.
January 13, 2025
William Flaherty: the Olympic skiing rocketeer
Which is more difficult: slaloming down a ski slope at 50 miles an hour, or designing a rocket to travel 1,000 miles an hour? William Flaherty, a Purdue mechanical engineering student, has done both!
November 15, 2024
The future of sustainable aviation: artificial intelligence for new clean propulsion models
As a leader in propulsion technology, Purdue University is always searching for innovative ways to make aviation more sustainable. Their latest initiative is TRANSDIFFUSE, a €10 million collaborative project which promises to revolutionize the field of turbomachinery through an innovative model based on artificial intelligence.
October 10, 2024
Zucrow dedicates $73 million High-Speed Propulsion Lab
Hundreds gathered to cut the ceremonial ribbon at the dedication of the new $73 million High-Speed Propulsion Lab at the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. Otherwise known as ZL9, the lab features new testing capabilities for innovative research in rocket combustion and gas turbine engines.
October 09, 2024
Solid fuel for rotating detonation engines
Terrence Meyer and Steve Son are collaborating with the Air Force Research Laboratory to investigate using solid propellants in rotating detonation engines.
October 07, 2024
Video celebrates Zucrow Labs' 75th anniversary
Since 1948, Zucrow Labs has been an industry leader , and is now the largest propulsion lab in academia.
April 09, 2024
Undersecretary of Defense visits Purdue hypersonics facility
Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, visited Purdue's Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility.
March 04, 2024
Zucrow Labs Annual Report
There is a lot happening at Zucrow Labs, the world's largest academic propulsion lab, including a $73 million addition that will transform the 24-acre campus. Learn more in Zucrow's annual report.
November 14, 2023
Guillermo Paniagua's turbine modeling wins supercomputing award
A team led by Guillermo Paniagua was honored with the “Best HPC Collaboration” award in HPCwire’s 2023 Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards for its work developing novel engine components that will have implications for decarbonized power generation. The team used the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC)’s Bell supercomputer to run simulations.
September 12, 2023
How Zucrow alum Loral O'Hara fulfilled her childhood space dreams
When Loral O'Hara talked with Zucrow professor William Anderson about graduate school, she had a cool confidence about her fate. Hiding her internal doubt and widely scattered interests, she said matter-of-factly that she would be an astronaut someday. That day has arrived. O'Hara will launch on the Soyuz MS-24 mission this Friday morning for a six-month stay on the International Space Station.
August 03, 2023
Jimmy Kenyon takes the reins of NASA's Glenn Research Center
When you watch a space launch, what you might not see is the thousands of people who work behind-the-scenes, sometimes for years, to make that mission a success. NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is just such a place – where thousands of workers develop the power, propulsion, and communications technologies that enable the newest cutting-edge aircraft and spacecraft to succeed. Purdue alum James “Jimmy” Kenyon (MSE ’98) was recently appointed Director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center, and discusses how being a Boilermaker (including working with Sandy Fleeter at Zucrow Labs) has helped him support some of the best researchers in the world.
July 24, 2023
NASA podcast features Purdue-designed engine
A revolutionary rocket engine design was recently tested at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama: a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE). It's a kind of rocket design that's only been theorized until modern advancements allowed for this once-only-imagined technology to become a reality. NASA's official podcast spoke with Stephen Heister, Raisbeck Engineering Distinguished Professor for Engineering and Technology Integration, on why this is such a big deal.
June 26, 2023
Adranos solid rocket company acquired by Anduril
In 2015, Brandon Terry was a postdoc at Zucrow Labs, working on an experimental solid rocket propellant. The company he started, Adranos Inc., has now been acquired by defense contractor Anduril Industries.
June 08, 2023
How Maurice Zucrow helped Purdue University shoot for the moon
Maurice J. Zucrow was a pioneer: Purdue's first ever Ph.D. recipient, first professor of jet propulsion, and founder of what is now the largest academic propulsion lab in the world. But there's a lot about Maurice Zucrow you don't know! It's detailed in a new book from Purdue Press called "The Rocket Lab: Maurice Zucrow, Purdue University, and America’s Race to Space."
June 06, 2023
New $41M Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility opens
Leaders from Purdue, federal government, and industry celebrated the opening of the Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility (HARF), a $41 million, 65,000-square-foot building at Zucrow Labs that is home to two cutting-edge wind tunnels – the only Mach 8 quiet wind tunnel in the world, and a hypersonic pulse (HYPULSE) reflected shock/expansion tunnel.
April 05, 2023
Supersonic water table enables rapid prototyping for turbines
Testing new designs for jet engine turbines is no easy task. Wind tunnels are large, complicated, and expensive; and building functional prototypes takes a long time. But Zucrow Labs researchers now have an alternative: a water table which simulates supersonic flow, enabling them to quickly test and iterate their designs.
February 16, 2023
Zucrow Labs Annual Report now available
Review all the exciting developments at academia's largest propulsion lab.
September 08, 2022
Explore Zucrow Labs with 360 photo tour
NEW 360° tour! Now you can see Zucrow Labs from the inside, and explore the world's largest academic propulsion lab in detail!
August 19, 2022
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks visits Purdue
Purdue University's strength in state-of-the-art aerospace technology, energetic materials, semiconductors and hypersonics research stands as a testament to the university's future in national security. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and her advisers visited Zucrow Labs on August 18 to tour essential research facilities.
August 18, 2022
3D printed metal parts go hypersonic
Zucrow Labs is quickly becoming the center for hypersonics research in the US, and for that you need parts that can stand up to Mach 5 conditions. Recent work done by the team demonstrates that advanced additive manufacturing technology is now capable of producing fully dense, end-use parts with robustness that surpasses traditional methods like casting. Parts that can create hypersonic conditions and live to tell the tale.
June 13, 2022
Can we turn Martian soil into rocket propellant?
We've sent many probes, landers, and rovers to Mars, but we've never been able to send anything back from the Red Planet. That may change, thanks to some Zucrow researchers who have successfully demonstrated a solid rocket propellant using the same perchlorates found in Martian soil.
June 01, 2022
Purdue Space Program launches liquid methane rocket twice in one weekend
Very few organizations have ever launched a liquid methane rocket. Launching the same methane rocket, twice in one weekend? Well, that singular honor belongs to Purdue Space Program.
May 26, 2022
Purdue and Rolls-Royce sign 10-year, $75 million strategic alliance agreement
Purdue University and Rolls-Royce officials have signed a research and testing agreement that will bring $75 million over 10 years to the West Lafayette campus, primarily to Zucrow Labs. It is the largest deal with an industry partner in Purdue history.
May 24, 2022
Arthur Mellor (1941-2022)
Arthur McLeod (Mac) Mellor has passed away. A well-known figure in combustion and propulsion, he served as a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue from 1967 to 1975, recruited by "Doc" Zucrow himself.
April 27, 2022
Adranos closes on $20 million funding for solid rocket propellant
Adranos Inc. has closed on a $20 million Series A funding round to help the company continue development of solid rocket fuel and motors for long-range missiles and space systems. Adranos co-founder Brandon Terry developed their proprietary aluminum-lithium alloy fuel called ALITEC at Zucrow Labs.
April 15, 2022
Roy Ramirez recognized as outstanding senior for all of Purdue University
Roy Ramirez came from Costa Rica to Purdue to learn about propulsion, and had a much bigger adventure than he had ever planned. Ramirez is this year's recipient of the G.A. Ross Award, which is presented annually to one outstanding male senior in honor of his contributions to Purdue University.
April 08, 2022
Purdue approves $73 million funding for new High-Speed Propulsion Lab
Purdue University’s work in national security took another giant leap forward, as the Board of Trustees approved $73 million for the construction of a new high-speed propulsion laboratory at Zucrow Labs. Otherwise known as ZL9, the lab will feature new testing capabilities for innovative research in rocket combustion and gas turbine engines, continuing Purdue’s history of world-class research and development in those areas, and reaching a scale only found in government or large defense contractor facilities.
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