Rocketdyne
The Rocketdyne Division was founded by North American Aviation (NAA) in 1955, and was later part of Rockwell International (1967-1996) and Boeing (1996-2005). In 2005, the Rocketdyne Division was sold to United Technologies Corporation, becoming Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne as part of Pratt & Whitney. In 2013, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne was sold to GenCorp, which merged it with Aerojet to form Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Vernon L. Grose
Grose joined the staff of Northrop Ventura in Rancho El Conejo, California, in 1962, serving as the Director of Applied Technology. In this role, he was responsible for test activities for the engineering department. He participated in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects of the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), overseeing the chemistry, metallurgy, reliability, configuration management, and value engineering of the program. In 1964, he transferred to Rocketdyne, which was a division of Rockwell International. At Rocketdyne, located in Van Nuys, Grose was named the Chief of Reliability, where he continued to focus on North American aviation, specifically participating in the development of the Gemini and Apollo space programs.