North American Aviation: Commercial (United States), launches, rockets and satellites

Industry / Companies / North American Aviation

0Orbital launches

0All launches (incl. suborbital)

0Satellites in orbit

18Satellites built

3Rockets / spacecraft

North American Aviation is a commercial company based in the United States, founded in 1928. Our records show 3 rockets or spacecraft.

Totals include the divisions, sites and subsidiaries listed under Structure below.

Wikipedia · More from United States

Sources disagree.
Founding year: Launch Library 2 says 1928; GCAT (J. McDowell) says 1936; Wikidata says 1928
We show the value from the most detailed source and flag the difference instead of guessing.

Structure

Divisions, sites and subsidiaries

North America Aviation - Aerophysics Laboratory 0 orbital launches · 0 satellites in orbit North American Aviation, Missile Division, Downey 0 orbital launches · 0 satellites in orbit North American Aviation, Seal Beach 0 orbital launches · 0 satellites in orbit Rocketdyne 0 orbital launches · 0 satellites in orbit

Products

Rockets and spacecraft

Name	Type	Status	First flight	Launches
Apollo Command/Service Module	Capsule	Retired	1966	21 (2 failed)
North American X-15	Rocket	Retired	1959	13 (1 failed)
Little Joe	Rocket	Retired	1959	8 (5 failed)

In the news

Recent headlines

Rocketdyne reemerges as standalone space company SpaceNews · 4 Aug 2026
L3Harris to sell majority stake in space propulsion unit to AE Industrial for $845 million SpaceNews · 5 Jan 2026
65 Years Ago: First Powered Flight of the X-15 Hypersonic Rocket Plane NASA · 17 Sep 2024

Matched by name; a headline may mention this organisation without being about it. All headlines.

Provenance

Where this comes from

This entry merges 3 sources: Launch Library 2 · GCAT (J. McDowell) · Wikidata (Q519560 )
Verification status: cross-checked across sources, not yet reviewed by a person. How we build and check this data.

Launch and satellite data: Jonathan McDowell's GCAT (CC BY 4.0) and CelesTrak. Rockets, spacecraft and agencies: Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs and Wikidata. News headlines link to their publishers via the Spaceflight News API and RSS feeds. Records come from several sources and are matched automatically, so treat the directory as a research aid, not an authority. How the data is built and checked.