GPS Satellite Launched with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Rocket Engine
CANOGA PARK, Calif., Dec. 20 -- Closing out the U.S. launch year with a roar, a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A rocket engine, along with a compliment of solid rocket motors, propelled a United Launch Alliance Delta II into space today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The payload was an Air Force satellite, part of the next-generation GPS constellation. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company.
"Once again, our RS-27A did its job in spectacular fashion," said Elizabeth Jones, PWR program manager for the RS-27A. "To date, we have taken part in the successful launch of every GPSII mission and are scheduled for three more. Today's flight was the 220th for the RS-27 family of rocket engine systems and the 331st Delta mission."
The RS-27A engine system fired for slightly over four minutes and produced 200,000 pounds of thrust.
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 Kidder
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
818-586-2213
bryan.kidder@pwr.utc.com
John Mitchell
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
818-586-4564,
john.mitchell@pwr.utc.com
Web site: http://www.pratt-whitney.com/
