SACRAMENTO, Calif.,
Feb. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Aerojet,
a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, along with NASA and Orbital Sciences
Corporation (NYSE: ORB) (Orbital), conducted the acceptance
hot-fire test of the second AJ26 flight engine that will power the
first stage of Orbital's Taurus® II medium-class launch
vehicle.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110208/SF44093)
The test, conducted yesterday afternoon at NASA's Stennis Space
Center in Mississippi, follows the
successful acceptance tests conducted on Engine 1 in November and
December 2010. Following the test,
Engines 1 and 2 will be delivered to the Wallops Flight Facility
launch site in Virginia for
integration into the Taurus II first-stage core, as a main engine
assembly.
"The successful test is another critical step toward the planned
Taurus II first stage ground test in May 2011," said Executive
Director, Pete Cova. "One of the
keys to our successful testing is the Orbital, Aerojet and NASA
Stennis test teams who continue to work together seamlessly with
mission success as their priority."
Aerojet's AJ26 engine is an oxidizer-rich, staged-combustion
LO2/Kerosene engine that achieves very high performance in a
lightweight compact package. Based on the NK-33 engine originally
designed and produced in Russia
for the Russian N1 lunar launch vehicle, the liquid-fuel AJ26 will
provide boost for the first stage of the Taurus II launch vehicle.
This testing is being conducted to support the Taurus II Initial
Launch Capability (ILC) in the third quarter of 2011.
Aerojet originally purchased approximately 40 NK-33 engines in
the mid-1990s and, under contract with Orbital, the company has
modified the engines specifically for the Taurus II medium-class
launch vehicle. Throughout the years, more than 200 NK-33 engines
were built and 575 engine tests conducted, totaling more than
100,000 seconds of test time. Aerojet has been developing design
modifications to the NK-33 since that time to ensure that the AJ26
is suitable for commercial launchers.
About Taurus II:
The Taurus II medium-class launch vehicle is being developed to
boost payloads into a variety of low-Earth and geosynchronous
transfer orbits and to Earth escape trajectories. Taurus II
incorporates proven technologies from Orbital's Pegasus®, Taurus
and Minotaur rockets, and is supported by a "best-in-class" network
of suppliers from the U.S. and around the world.
The Taurus II rocket also will be available to civil government
and U.S. military customers for dedicated launch services for
medium-class scientific and national security satellites. Taurus II
will be capable of supporting mid-inclination and polar orbiting
spacecraft weighing 10,000 lbs. and 5,500 lbs., respectively.
About Aerojet:
Aerojet is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader
principally serving the missile and space propulsion, defense and
armaments markets. GenCorp is a leading technology-based
manufacturer of aerospace and defense products and systems with a
real estate segment that includes activities related to the
entitlement, sale, and leasing of the company's excess real estate
assets. Additional information about Aerojet and GenCorp can be
obtained by visiting the companies' websites at
http://www.Aerojet.com and http://www.GenCorp.com.
SOURCE Aerojet