SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 24, 2012 – Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, announced today that it has received the Large Prime Contractor of the Year award from NASA’s Glenn Research Center (Glenn) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Aerojet was selected for its commitment to small business advancement during a five-year effort to create liquid methane propulsion engines for Glenn. As part of this work, Aerojet was creative in meeting NASA’s small business requirements by fostering partnerships and tailoring engine development work scope. The company employed interns through a program that helps fulfill NASA and Department of Defense (DoD) small business Historically Black Colleges and Universities requirements.
In addition, Aerojet received a special achievement award for completion of a year-long testing campaign at Glenn’s Altitude Combustion Stand (ACS). The ACS facility is designed to test engines in a reduced atmosphere environment that simulates the vacuum environment of space. The special achievement award was for the successful completion of pulsed operations and ignition margin test series for the 100lbf oxygen/methane reaction control engine (RCE) thruster in Glenn’s ACS.
Glenn conducted a variety of tests over a year period to determine the ignition margin, overall engine performance levels, including vacuum specific impulse, or the amount of thrust produced by a given amount of propellant flowing through the engine. Testing also examined how well the engine could operate in a pulse mode such as those for changing directions in space or docking with another vehicle. During this test series, the engine met or exceeded all performance requirements.
The special achievement award marks the completion of testing of the 100lbf oxygen/methane at the ACS facility. “The entire Aerojet team is very proud of our pioneering oxygen/methane RCE development and NASA’s testing that provided verification of our results,” says Aerojet Program Manager, Eric Veith.
Aerojet is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader providing propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense, strategic, tactical missile and armaments areas in support of domestic and international 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 www.Aerojet.com and at www.GenCorp.com.
