Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Engine to Power 200th Centaur Rocket Mission
The Mobile User Objective System satellites will improve communications for U.S. Navy
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Feb. 14, 2011 – Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne stands poised to power the Centaur upper-stage rocket on its 200th mission and to place the first in a series of Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) communications satellites for the U.S. Navy into orbit on Feb. 16. The launch is scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, with a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10A4-2 engine providing the upper-stage propulsion.
WHAT: The 200th launch of Centaur rocket using the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 engine. PWR boosted 14 launches in 2011, with payloads that included astronauts; cargo; and satellites vital to space exploration, worldwide communication, navigation, defense, research and development, and weather prediction.
WHO: Steve Bouley, vice president, Launch Vehicle & Hypersonic Systems, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, will be available for interviews. To schedule a phone interview before or after the launch, contact Carri Karuhn at 818-307-2285.
WHERE: Launch scheduled at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
WHEN: Phone interviews available on Feb. 14. The payload will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V is powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 booster engine, and the Centaur is powered by the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10A4-2 engine, which delivers 22,300 pounds of thrust. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, 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 engines for launch vehicles, missile defense systems and advanced hypersonic engines. Behind its successful designs, manufacturing processes, and hardware are Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s research and development engineers, who solve tough problems in extreme environments. For more information, go to www.PrattWhitneyRocketdyne.com. Follow us at www.twitter.com/pwrocketdyne and www.facebook.com/pwrocketdyne.
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 commercial building industries.
Carri Karuhn
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Communications Specialist
818-586-4963
We engineer groundbreaking solutions that perform in the most extreme conditions on Earth and in space.
