NASA's Orion spacecraft

AEROJET PRESS RELEASE

Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, successfully completed a second set of hot-fire test sequences of its R-1E 25-pound thrust, bipropellant engine. This second test included more than 17,250 seconds of total burn time, demonstrating engine flexibility to operate under a broad variety of conditions expected for NASA’s Orion service module. Initial test results indicate the engine performed successfully in simulated space-flight mission scenarios.

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AEROJET PRESS RELEASE

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Aerojet, a GenCorp NYSE: GY company, announced today that Jules Verne — the first of the European Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV) — has successfully launched aboard the European expendable launch system, Ariane 5, out of Kourou in French Guiana.

For the mission, Aerojet delivered four R-4D main engines that will be used to accomplish the early circularization maneuvers and docking simulations. NASA announced that the ATV reached its preliminary orbit about nine minutes after liftoff. When preliminary orbit was achieved, the ATV engines fired for eight minutes to place the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit. About 45 minutes later, a second engine firing circularized the ATV’s orbit prior to spacecraft separation.

Once in orbit, the ATV will undergo four weeks of extensive systems tests, including two approaches to the station to simulate rendezvous and contingency techniques.

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Aerojet and Boeing have signed an associate contractor’s agreement to build the upper stage of the Ares rocket for NASA’s Orion lunar program. The contract also involves four other companies: Hamilton Sundstrand, Jacobs Engineering Group, Moog Inc., and Teledyne Brown Engineering. Aerojet, a division of GenCorp, is based in Rancho Cordova, Calif. Read the Sacramento Bee story here. Aerojet has also issued a press release.