Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Rocket Engine System Sends Spacecraft to Probe Beginnings of Solar System
CANOGA PARK, Calif., Sept. 27, 2007 – A Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A boosted a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The rocket was carrying Dawn, a new spacecraft that will rendezvous with two protoplanets and is expected to provide new details on the origins of our solar system. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. [NYSE:UTX] company.
Developing 200,000 pounds of thrust, the RS-27A engine system performed well as it helped lift the Delta II and its cargo into space before transitioning to the rocket’s second stage power source. This was the 217th time an RS-27 has performed such a task, adding to more than three decades of 100-percent lift-off success. An RS-27 has been the first-stage booster engine for the Delta II since its inception.
“We’re immensely proud of the RS-27A and what it has done for the American space program,” said Elizabeth Jones, program manager for the RS-27A. “We think that our reliability record is beyond compare, which is why our customers continue to turn to the RS-27A.”
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc., a part of Pratt & Whitney, is a preferred provider of high-value propulsion, power, energy and innovative system solutions used in a wide variety of government and commercial applications, including the main engines for the space shuttle, Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, missile defense systems and advanced hypersonic engines.
Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines. United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building industries.
Bryan KidderPratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
818-586-2213
bryan.kidder@pwr.utc.com
John Mitchell
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
818 586-4564
john.mitchell@pwr.utc.com
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