Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne today helped boost into orbit an Intelsat communications satellite that will provide data, voice and video services for the Americas, Europe and Africa. The satellite includes Intelsat’s first Internet Router In Space. The mission, AV-024, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket powered by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s RL10 upper-stage engine and the RD AMROSS RD-180 booster engine. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX. RD AMROSS LLC is a joint venture of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and NPO
“We are pleased that the RL10 rocket engine continued its 46-year tradition of providing dependable propulsion for our customers,” said Jim Maus, director, expendable propulsion programs, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
“The AV-024 launch is the 25th consecutive successful mission for the RD-180-powered Atlas, and it also marks the first time that the RD-180 has powered five Atlas V launches in a single year,” said Len Dest, president and CEO of RD AMROSS. “RD AMROSS and its partners — NPO Energomash and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne — congratulate Intelsat on the successful launch. We are proud to again contribute to another successful Atlas V commercial launch.”
Lockheed Martin provided the Intelsat 14 satellite for Intelsat, the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, while Cisco Systems provided the Internet Router In Space payload.
The Atlas V Centaur upper stage is powered by a single RL10A-4-2 engine that delivers 22,300 pounds of thrust. For over 46 years, the RL10 has been one of the United States’ most reliable upper-stage engines. The Atlas V booster stage is powered by the RD-180 engine delivering nearly 1 million pounds of thrust. The RD-180 is the only liquid oxygen-kerosene fueled engine with an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle flying in the United States today.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc., 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.
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.
