Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne received the 2010 Large Business Prime Contractor of the Year Award from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The award is given to large and small business prime contractors, subcontractors and civil service team members whose leadership and pursuit of technological excellence support the work of the Marshall Center and sustain NASA’s mission of exploration and discovery. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.
The award was presented to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne during the recent annual Marshall Space Flight Center Industry & Advocates Award Ceremony held at the Davidson Center for Space Exploration in Huntsville. The company was recognized for exemplary support of the center’s subcontracting programs under the J-2X upper-stage engine and Space Shuttle Main Engine contracts.
“We value the opportunity to work with small businesses, which play an integral role in the development and production of the J-2X and Space Shuttle Main Engines we provide NASA for human space flight,” said Joe Sylvestro, vice president, operations and supply management, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. “We are honored that NASA has recognized Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for supporting those businesses.”
NASA’s J-2X engine was developed with heavy-lift capabilities in mind, and could play an important role as a powerful upper-stage engine for future missions to low-Earth orbit, Mars or an asteroid. Not only will it burn liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, but NASA’s J-2X has the capability of being a technology demonstrator, namely as a test-bed for a liquid oxygen-methane engine. The Space Shuttle Main Engine is the world’s most sophisticated, high performance reusable rocket engine.
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.
