[3][4][2] Aerojet traces its origins to the General Tire and Rubber Company (later renamed GenCorp, Inc. as it diversified) established in 1915, while Rocketdyne was created as a division of North American Aviation in 1955.

Due to the studio and rocket businesses, General Tire & Rubber came to own a great deal of property in California.

Its internal facilities management unit began commercializing its operations, landing General Tire & Rubber in the real estate business.

Located 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Sacramento along U.S. Highway 50, the properties were valuable, being in a key growth corridor in the region.

RKO General ran into difficulties with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during license renewal proceedings in the late 1980s.

[13] In March 2008, hedge fund Steel Partners II, which owned 14% of GenCorp, Inc., made an agreement that saw Terry J.

Steel Partners II had previously attempted a hostile takeover in 2004, and forced the deal after complaining about "significant underperformance and deterioration of share price".

[14] In January 2010, Scott Seymour, the former head of Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems from 2002 to 2008, was appointed permanent CEO of GenCorp, Inc. and Neish resigned.

[15] In July 2012, GenCorp, Inc. agreed to buy rocket engine producer Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corporation for $550 million.

[31] L3Harris named former CTO Ross Niebergall as president of the new Aerojet Rocketdyne business segment,[2] which would now be headquartered in Palm Bay, Florida.

[32] On 13 October 2017, it was reported that Aerojet Rocketdyne completed a keystone demonstration on a new X3 ion thruster, which is a central part of the XR-100 system for the NextSTEP program.

During the demonstration, it broke records for the maximum power output, thrust and operating current achieved by a Hall thruster to date.