Video about a tri-propellant engine tested at SSFL (it is quite long, but I enjoyed it, it was released ~month ago) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX-0Xw6kkrc

tl;dr - it's a lithium, hydrogen, fluoride rocket.

Skip 31:00 (https://youtu.be/KX-0Xw6kkrc?t=1860) for a treatment on the bonkers environmental impact and safety things going on at SSFL. The equivalent wiki article section says uh... "Workers would dispose of barrels filled with radioactive sodium by dumping them in a pond and then shooting the barrels with rifles so that they would explode and release their contents into the air".

That was a great video. That was a gonzo nuts rocket engine but it worked for reals and not just calculation.

I worked at Rocketdyne in the late 2000's (not a rocket scientist, just a junior Unix tech). Even then the company was just a shell of its former glory. But there was a certain pride in the air and a ton of rich history all over the place. I loved when I had to go fix workstations at the Canoga Park facility and would get lost on purpose just to check it out. It was a pretty dreadful place to work overall, though.

Is this site abandoned and do people sneak into it? (And get cancer later in their life mysteriously, but that's neither here nor there.)

Quick edit: yes they do https://www.wired.com/2014/06/the-cold-war-relics-three-phot...

I live near it and barely heard about this: https://parentsagainstssfl.com/

Grew up in Simi Valley in the 90s. It was completely normalized that we would have frequent “earthquakes” that were actually rocket tests shaking stuff off the walls.

Once I was a teenager and that place was largely closed down, it was a good spot to drive up to and drink beer and look over the Valley.

Crazy history of what actually was happening there over the years.