{"id":17866,"date":"2019-12-04T19:37:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T11:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/aerojet-rocketdyne-signs-on-the-bottom-line-to-build-hardware-for-moon-missions\/"},"modified":"2019-12-04T19:37:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T11:37:36","slug":"aerojet-rocketdyne-signs-on-the-bottom-line-to-build-hardware-for-moon-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/aerojet-rocketdyne-signs-on-the-bottom-line-to-build-hardware-for-moon-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"Aerojet Rocketdyne signs on the bottom line to build hardware for moon missions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Lockheed Martin\u2019s Mike Hawes and Scott Jones sign copies of a contract for Orion rocket hardware, after Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s Ken Young and Cheryl Rehm take their turn. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

REDMOND, Wash. \u2014 Representatives of Aerojet Rocketdyne and Lockheed Martin put their signatures on a contract for up to $170 million worth of rocket hardware that\u2019ll be installed on Orion spacecraft heading to the moon \u2014 with dozens of employees who\u2019ll actually build that hardware watching the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the things you\u2019re going to be talking to your grandchildren about,\u201d Cheryl Rehm, Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s senior director of Redmond programs, told company employees here at today\u2019s signing ceremony.<\/p>\n

The ceremony highlighted Redmond\u2019s role in NASA\u2019s Artemis moon landings.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the more than 400 employees sitting here in Redmond, there\u2019s more than 10 years of work in front of us,\u201d said Redmond general manager Ken Young. \u201cIt sets us up for follow-on ship sets well into the \u201930s. So we\u2019re happy to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aerojet\u2019s Redmond operation has already been working on propulsion systems for NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft. In fact, employees on the factory floor are currently finishing up work on a set of thrusters that\u2019ll be used for the first crewed mission, known as Artemis 2. That mission is scheduled to send astronauts around the moon and back in 2022.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s contract addresses the missions that come afterward \u2014 starting with Artemis 3, which is due to land astronauts near the lunar south pole in 2024.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tXq16lgMTo8<\/p>\n

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the Orion program, and Aerojet Rocketdyne is a subcontractor. The Redmond operation is responsible for the rocket motor that pulls the Orion\u2019s launch abort system away from the crew module after liftoff, the auxiliary engines that help steer the spacecraft during flight, and the reaction control system that orients the crew module correctly for splashdown at the end of each mission.<\/p>\n

Aerojet will receive $120 million from Lockheed Martin to provide those systems for the Artemis 3, 4 and 5 missions, and there\u2019s a $50 million option to buy more thrusters for Artemis 6, 7 and 8. Those six moon missions are covered by a pair of NASA contracts with Lockheed Martin amounting to $4.6 billion.<\/p>\n

Aerojet and Lockheed Martin expect to reuse some of the hardware from earlier missions on later missions, which is why the contracts are weighted more heavily in the earlier phases.<\/p>\n

Mike Hawes, vice president and Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said the development program is running on a tight schedule. He noted that the Orion production build process typically requires 54 months, and the spacecraft is typically turned over to NASA five to seven months before launch.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t leave a lot of extra time to get ready a 2024 moon launch. \u201cIn relative terms, it feels like we\u2019re right here,\u201d said Hawes, putting his hand in front of his nose.<\/p>\n

\"Don
Don Mahr, Orion project manager for Aerojet Rocketdyne in Redmond, pulls the wraps off a banner celebrating Redmond\u2019s role in the Orion program. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s Redmond operation is only one part of a company that has its headquarters in California and additional facilities in locations ranging from Alabama to Utah. Other divisions of the company are providing engines for NASA\u2019s Space Launch System, the rocket that\u2019s designed to send Orion toward the moon.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also chance that Aerojet Rocketdyne will win NASA\u2019s nod to build additional main engines for Orion \u2014 once the space agency depletes its inventory of surplus engines (which Aerojet Rocketdyne built for the space shuttle program years ago).<\/p>\n

Regardless of how those other rocket projects turn out, today\u2019s contract guarantees that Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s employees in Redmond will have a role in moon landings for years to come. And maybe the Mars landings to follow. That\u2019s more than enough to fire up engineers like Sabrina Blacklock, who\u2019s part of the assembly team for the crew module\u2019s thrusters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m of a generation that is younger than the shuttle, so this is my first opportunity to be part of manned space,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m ecstatic to be on the forefront of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Aerojet
Members of Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s Orion team in Redmond, Wash., get their picture taken with a banner celebrating Redmond\u2019s role in Orion fleet production.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Update for 4:20 a.m. PT Dec. 5:<\/strong> We\u2019ve updated this report to reflect the fact that, while the program office for the Orion launch abort system\u2019s jettison motor is in Redmond, the actual building of the motor is done at Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s facilities in Huntsville, Ala., and Orange, Va. The rest of the Orion engines are built in Redmond.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lockheed Martin\u2019s Mike Hawes and Scott Jones sign copies of a contract for Orion rocket hardware, after Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s Ken Young and Cheryl Rehm take their turn. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) REDMOND, Wash. \u2014 Representatives of Aerojet Rocketdyne and Lockheed Martin put their signatures on a contract for up to $170 million worth of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[864,304,472,625,640],"class_list":["post-17866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerojet-rocketdyne","tag-artemis","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-moon","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}