Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Awarded $60.3 Million NASA Contract for Continued Support of the Space Shuttle Main Engine

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne received a $60.3 million contract from NASA to provide continued Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) pre-launch, launch and post-launch support through March 31, 2011. The contract is an extension to the current space shuttle program flight manifest launch schedule, which shifted the last two scheduled launch dates for missions STS-133 and STS-134 to fiscal year 2011. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX – News) company.

“The extension means NASA will be able to complete the next two space shuttle missions that are critical to completing the International Space Station, allowing it to achieve its full potential and ensuring it remains viable until at least 2020,” said Jim Paulsen, SSME program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. “Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a close partner with NASA and a strong contributor to the nation’s human spaceflight program. We look forward to continuing to work together to help advance human space exploration now and in the future.”

The SSME is the world’s most sophisticated, high-performance reusable rocket engine that is capable of lifting heavy launch vehicles. Since its first flight in 1981, the SSME has achieved 100 percent mission success with more than one million seconds of hot-fire experience. As the most highly-tested large rocket engine ever built, the SSME sets the foundation for further U.S. space exploration. 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 main engines for the space shuttle, Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, missile defense systems and advanced hypersonic engines. For more information about Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, go to www.prattwhitneyrocketdyne.com.

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.