To maintain a constant pressure in the combustion chamber of a rocket engine, which operates with either liquid and/or metallized propellants, a cooled throat pintle assembly is provided to vary the throat area in an E-D nozzle. The pintle design is a composite structure consisting of a Columbium alloy central rod member having in its cylindrical and injector portions a Grafoil intermediate layer and a Carbitex outer layer. The throat portion of the pintle assembly consists of stacked pyrolytic graphite washers having a spiral formed coolant passages. The throat, cylindrical, and injector portions of the pintle are gas film cooled with fuel-rich gases that are ducted through the center of the pintle from a pressurization system gas generator. The injector or forward end of the pintle is cooled by a gas film exiting from the pintle housing. The throat portion of the pintle is cooled by gases exiting through spiral grooves in the washers.