Новости P&W Rocketdyne

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http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_07_23_2012_p0-479108.xml&p=1

GenCorp To Pay $550M For UTC's Rocketdyne

By Reuters Staff, Frank Morring, Jr. morring@aviationweek.com

July 23, 2012

GenCorp, a maker of aerospace propulsion systems, will pay $550 million for United Technologies Corp.'s (UTC) Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne unit, the two companies said July 23.

The deal will almost double GenCorp's size, while allowing UTC to pay down a portion of debt tied to its $16.5 billion acquisition of aircraft components maker Goodrich Corp.

The companies expect the deal, first reported by Reuters last week, to close in the first half of 2013.

Rocketdyne, the world's largest manufacturer of liquid-fueled rocket propulsion systems, has been facing an uncertain outlook following the end of the U.S. space shuttle program last year, and industry executives have said consolidation is needed for the space industry to survive a tough environment.

The sale comes more than seven years after UTC bought Rocketdyne from Boeing for $700 million in cash.

Rocketdyne makes liquid rocket motors to launch satellites into space, but also has begun to diversify into solar and gasified coal energy technologies. GenCorp's Aerojet subsidiary and Alliant Techsystems Inc. produce solid-rocket motors.

Several people familiar with the process told Reuters previously that UTC had received multiple bids for the Rocketdyne business in late March, with GenCorp and private equity firms among the interested parties. Talks resumed in earnest with GenCorp after a prospective deal with a private equity buyer fell through, the people told Reuters.

Defense consultant Jim McAleese said the deal was significant because it would help preserve "a critical, but atrophying, capability since Rocketdyne's liquid-rocket engines power both the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, and NASA's manned spaceflight."

He said he did not expect much objection to the deal since it would "immediately strengthen competition, by creating two strong competitors for liquid- and solid-rocket engines," the combined Aerojet-Rocketdyne business and Alliant Techsystems.

"This is exactly the type of modest consolidation that [the U.S. Department of Defense] has been publicly seeking to increase competition and reduce overhead, which could not be more timely given the growing threat of sequestration," McAleese said, referring to an additional $500 billion in defense spending cuts due to take effect in January.

GenCorp Chief Executive Officer Scott Seymour said the combined company would be better positioned for a highly competitive marketplace and could provide more affordable products to customers. "This transaction almost doubles the size of our company and provides additional growth opportunities as we build upon the complementary capabilities of each legacy company that has enabled a generation of human space travel and national security launch services," Seymour said in a prepared statement announcing the agreement. He added it would create a "combined enterprise ... better positioned to compete in a dynamic, highly competitive marketplace, and provide more affordable products for our customers."

Both companies have been in the rocket-engine business since the beginning of the Space Age. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne built engines for the Saturn V moon rocket and space shuttle, while Aerojet is on the verge of launching its first AJ26 — a modified Russian NK-33 — as the main powerplant for the new Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares medium-lift launch vehicle.

Both companies have been selected to conduct study work on kerosene engines for the advanced booster for NASA's planned heavy-lift Space Launch System, which will be powered by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's RD-25D and E space shuttle main engines, and the J-2X upper stage based on the Saturn V J-2 upper-stage engine. Aerojet is working on advanced kerosene-fueled propulsion for the advanced booster.

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NASA Awards Space Launch System Advanced Booster Contracts [/size] 1.10. 2012

WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded three contracts totaling $137.3 million to improve the affordability, reliability and performance of an advanced booster for the Space Launch System (SLS). The awardees will develop engineering demonstrations and risk reduction concepts for a future version of the SLS, a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

The initial 77-ton (70-metric-ton) SLS configuration will use two 5-segment solid rocket boosters similar to the boosters that helped power the space shuttle to orbit. The evolved 143-ton (130-metric-ton) SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with more thrust than any existing U.S. liquid- or solid-fueled boosters. These new initiatives will demonstrate and examine advanced booster concepts and hardware demonstrations during a 30-month period.

The companies selected for SLS Advanced Booster contracts are:
-- ATK Launch Systems Inc. of Brigham City, Utah, which will demonstrate innovations for a solid-fueled booster. The contract addresses the key risks associated with low-cost solid propellant boosters, particularly in the areas of composite case design and development, propellant development and characterization, nozzle design and affordability enhancement, and avionics and controls development.

-- Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., which will demonstrate the use of modern manufacturing techniques to produce and test several primary components of the F-1 rocket engine originally developed for the Apollo Program, including an integrated powerpack, the primary rotating machinery of the engine. Additionally, the contract will demonstrate innovative fabrication techniques for metallic cryogenic tanks.

-- Northrop Grumman Corporation Aerospace Systems of Redondo Beach, Calif., which will demonstrate innovative design and manufacturing techniques for composite propellant tanks with low fixed costs and affordable production rates. Independent time and motion studies will compare demonstration affordability data to SLS advanced booster development, production and operations.

Additional contracts may be awarded following successful negotiation of other proposals previously received for this NASA Research Announcement (NRA), subject to funding availability.

Designed to be flexible for launching payloads and spacecraft, including NASA's Orion spacecraft that will take humans beyond low Earth orbit, SLS will enable the agency to meet the Obama Administration's goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s.

The first flight test of NASA's SLS, an uncrewed mission to lunar orbit, which will feature a configuration for a 77-ton lift capacity, is scheduled for 2017. As SLS evolves, a two-stage launch vehicle configuration will provide a lift capability of 143 tons and include the improved, more powerful advanced booster.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/oct/HQ_12-339_SLS_Awards_Contract.html

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http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_07_23_2012_p22-477250.xml&p=2

 NASA Will Explore F-1 Upgrade For Heavy Lifter
 
 By Frank Morring, Jr.
 Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology
 
 July 23, 2012

The powerful rocket engine developed in the 1960s to launch the first men to the Moon could be reprised in the 2020s as the powerplant for strap-on boosters that NASA hopes to use in heavy-lift human missions to Mars. Under a new NASA risk-reduction project, Dynetics Inc., a relative newcomer to space launch, will explore the idea for the U.S. agency in partnership with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
 
 Rocketdyne built the 1.5-million-lb.-thrust F-1 engine for NASA, which mounted five of the kerosene-fueled behemoths in the Saturn V first stage to propel the massive Saturn/Apollo stack off the launch pad. The F-1—19 ft. tall, with a nozzle 12.5 ft. across—epitomized the scale of the flight hardware and ground infrastructure NASA used to beat the Soviet Uni on to the Moon. If NASA decides to fly it again, it probably will be tested in the same stands built for the F-1 at the agency's Marshall and Stennis field centers, stacked in the same 40-story Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center used for Apollo and the space shuttle, and launched fr om one of the pads built for the Moon program.
 
 Dynetics scored big in a $200 million NASA effort to reduce the risk on advanced boosters for the planned Space Launch System (SLS) that Congress ordered as a government-owned deep-space alternative to the commercial vehicles the agency wants to use for transport to the International Space Station. Last week NASA sel ected the company to negotiate for three of six 30-month study contracts designed to reduce risk on the twin boosters that will be needed to raise the SLS capability from an initial 70 metric tons to the 130 metric tons the agency believes will be needed for human missions beyond low Earth orbit.

"With an F-1-based approach, we get significant performance enhancement beyond the 130 [tons], on the order of 20 metric tons," Steve Cook, Dynetics' director of space technologies and NASA's former Ares program manager, tells Aviation Week's Jefferson Morris.
 
 Headquartered in Huntsville, Ala., near the World War II-vintage U.S. Army arsenal wh ere Wernher von Braun's team developed the Saturn V and its engines, Dynetics was selected for its risk-reduction proposals covering the F-1 engine itself, the main propulsion system for a strap-on booster and the booster structure. For the F-1, Cook says, risk-reduction tasks would include gas generator and powerpack evaluations. The company's main propulsion system proposal would involve cryogenic valve and line-in valve demonstrations, and the structures proposal would demonstrate low-cost cryogenic tank-manufacturing approaches.
 
 "Those risk reductions are focused heavily around affordability . . . because a big deal on the Space Launch System is affordability, while also giving NASA additional performance margin above their 130-metric-ton requirement," says Cook.
 
 NASA also selected a booster-tank proposal offered by Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems unit, which would build a subscale composite tank. Aerojet General Corp. has been working on a larger version of the surplus Soviet NK-33 kerosene-fueled rocket engine it modified for the new Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares, and NASA selected its proposal for a full-scale combustion-stability demonstration. NASA chose ATK Launch Systems—which built the four-segment solid-fuel motors used on the space shuttle and a five-segment version for the defunct Ares I crew launcher—to run an integrated booster static test.

NASA plans to use the five-segment solids with the first version of the SLS, a 70-metric-ton vehicle with a Delta IV upper stage. Later it will add a more powerful upper stage and whatever strap-ons it chooses to begin sending astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.
 
 "We want to build a system that will be upgradable and used for decades," says William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration operations.

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Завершение предыдущего поста:

 If the Dynetics proposal to use the F-1 in the boosters is accepted, all of the engines on the SLS will have heritage in earlier human spaceflight missions, and all will already have been used for decades when deep-space human missions begin. The F-1 ran a full 2.5-min. test at Edwards AFB, Calif., in 1960 (see photo), before the A-1 and A-2 test stands at Stennis were built for it. NASA and Rocketdyne are testing the uprated J-2X variant of the Saturn V J-2 engine to power the SLS upper stage. And the main SLS engine will be a throw-away version of the reusable RS-25D space shuttle main engine, also built by Rocketdyne, once the 15 surplus shuttle engines are used up. Developed in the 1970s, it will be the newest basic engine design for what may one day be NASA's newest human launchers.

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http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=158467851

Saturn V F-1 Engine Gas Generator Blazes Back To Life

On Jan. 10, 2013, a resurrected gas generator from a Saturn V F-1 engine completed two hot-fire tests that are part of a series of tests at Test Stand 116 located in the East Test Area at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The primary test objectives are to gather performance data from the refurbished gas generator and to demonstrate new test stand capabilities for conducting future tests with liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene fuel. Data from the tests will benefit the development of advanced, affordable propulsion systems needed for the evolved Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket -- a launch vehicle designed to carry 130 metric tons (143-tons) and to send humans even farther than the moon. (NASA/MSFC)

По ссылке есть видео.

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Aerospace Daily & Defence Report  12 April, 2003 
PWR Moving Ahead On F-1 Resurrection

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is working toward a full-scale turbomachinery test next year of the F-1B kerosene fueled rocket engine it is developing with Dynetics as a potential power plant for the advanced side-mounted boosters NASA will need to meet the 130-metric ton congressional requirement for its planned Space Launch System.
The company displayed a vintage F-1 gas generator and turbo machinery unit at the National Space Symposium here.
The flight hardware, left over from the Saturn V program, dwarfed other full scale rocket engines the company had on display in its exhibition-hall booth.
The company has two more F-1A engines that it is using for its NASA work.
"We've torn them down and inspected them to see how they look," said main combustion chamber development lead Tom Martin. "We're refurbishing those. We're taking some of the components and using modern processes to replicate that hardware."
PWR is using the vintage gas-generator cycle to get the SLS off the pad, relying on its 1.8 million-lb. thrust capability to provide the needed boost even without the efficiency of a staged combustion engine that is also in the running under NASA's advanced booster program.
The proposed Aerojet AJ-1E6 is an oxygen-rich staged, two-combustion chamber configuration similar to the Atlas V's RD-180, but is less powerful than the F-1B. While two F-1Bs would
be used on each of the two SLS boosters, a total off our AJ-1E6s would be required for the same power.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Dynetics' improved F-1 version incorporates a simplified F-1A turbopump and exhaust duct, as well as changes to the nozzle design and combustion chamber. Changes to the latter component include the adoption of a new hot-isostatic press-(HIP) bond assembly process for the main combustion chamber, as well as a new channel-wall nozzle made using simplified, less expensive manufacturing processes. "The HIP-bonded main combustion chamber gives us more thermal margin," says Ron Ramos, PWR's vice president for Exploration and Missile Defense.
PWR is also using additive manufacturing selective laser melting techniques to develop an optimized injector for the gas generator. "Designing and making the part is in the scope of the
program, but is not part of the scope of the hot fire element," says Ramos who adds the company may attempt to include the injector when this takes place.

Gas generator 
PWR took over testing of a heritage F-1A gas generator earlier this year from NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center, and has subsequently refurbished the engine components using the company-developed improved manufacturing techniques. "We will take the gas generator that we and Marshall tested, and do a power pack test at [NASA] Stennis. It will be the largestflow test," said Martin. The exercise will wrap up the 30-month program and is scheduled for "late 2014," he said.
With the proposed $550 million Aerojet purchase of PWR still awaiting Federal Trade Commission approval, PWR President Jim Maser says "until that decision is made we're pursuing a strategy independent of that decision.We believe we have the winning strategy."
Maser adds that beyond this issue bigger questions are facing the future of the entire launch architecture. "Does SLS continue to have enough funding? Are we going to go through risk reduction, and is NASA still willing to do full rate development through March 2015 – which is the timeline for the whole advanced booster risk reduction strategy." Maser also confirms that, in view of possible budget cuts, NASA "has asked us to look at several 'what if' scenarios."

Frank Morring, Jr. (morring@aviationweek.com) and Guy Norris (guy_norris@aviationweek.com)

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http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/04/27/hot-fire-tests-steering-the-future-of-nasas-space-launch-system-engines/

Hot-fire Tests Steering the Future of NASA's Space Launch System Engines
Posted by Doug Messier
on April 27, 2013, at 5:53 am
in News


A J-2X engine test firing on April 4, 2103, at Stennis Space Center. (Credit: NASA/SSC)

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, MS (NASA PR) — Engineers developing NASA's next-generation rocket closed one chapter of testing with the completion of a J-2X engine test series on the A-2 test stand at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and will begin a new chapter of full motion testing on test stand A-1.

The J-2X will drive the second stage of the 143-ton (130-metric ton) heavy-lift version of the Space Launch System (SLS). The rocket will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration and send humans in NASA's Orion spacecraft into deep space.

J-2X engine 10002 was fired for the last time on the A-2 test stand at Stennis on April 17. This engine set a duration record for J-2X engine firings at Stennis' A-2 test stand on April 4 when it fired for 570 seconds, beating the previous mark set less than a month earlier on March 7, when the same engine ran for 560 seconds.

This is the second J-2X engine Stennis has test fired. Last year, test conductors put the first developmental J-2X engine, called 10001, through its paces. According to J-2X managers, both performed extremely well.

When the engine is eventually used in space, it will need to be able to move to help steer the rocket.

"The A-1 is designed to allow us to gimbal, or pivot, the J-2X during a live firing and test the range of motion for the engine's flexible parts," said Gary Benton, manager of the J-2X test project at Stennis. "This type of testing hasn't been performed since the space shuttle main engines were tested on the stand."

Those space shuttle main engines, also called RS-25s, will make a return to the test stand in 2014. A collection of RS-25 engines, which were used to launch 135 space shuttle missions, will be rated to operate at a higher power level and used to launch the core stage of the SLS.

"While we will get valuable data on the engine fr om the firing and gimbaling of the J-2X, we're also re-testing the function of the A-1 stand," said Mike Kynard, manager of the SLS Liquid Engines Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., wh ere the SLS Program is managed. "Using A-1 to work on the J-2X gives us a great opportunity to ensure the stand will be capable and ready to test the RS-25s."

The March 7 test, which set the short-lived duration record, was remarkable for another reason in that it marked the first time a 3-D printed part was hot-fire tested on a NASA engine system.

The prime contractor for the liquid engine, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., built a maintenance port cover for the 10002 engine using an advanced manufacturing process called Selective Laser Melting. This construction method uses lasers to fuse metal dust into a specific pattern to build the needed part.

"This demonstrates affordable manufacturing in a revolutionary way," Kynard said. "The maintenance port cover built with Selective Laser Melting cost only 35 percent of the cost to make the same part using traditional methods. It performed well enough that we have started building other rocket engine parts using this advanced process, which takes days instead of months. It is a significant savings and one that we'll take advantage of when we build engine parts in the future."

The SLS will first launch during Exploration Mission-1 in 2017, a flight test that will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon.

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Chris Bergin: The engines that refused to retire – RS-25s prepare for SLS testing
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/06/engines-refused-retire-rs-25s-prepare-sls-testing/

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http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/35738ftc-approves-aerojet-pratt-whitney-rocketdyne-merger#.UbdonNiBXTo

FTC Approves Aerojet-Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Merger
By Mike Gruss | Jun. 11, 2013

WASHINGTON — GenCorp Inc. is free to proceed with its $550 million acquisition of rocket engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corp. after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) closed an investigation into whether the transaction would lead to an anti-competitive marketplace.

An FTC investigation had found the merger would give Sacramento, Calif.-based Aerojet, and its parent company GenCorp., a monopoly in liquid divert and altitude control systems, or LDACS, which are used for missile defense interceptors. Such an arrangement could lead to higher prices for the U.S. Defense Department, the FTC said.

In January, GenCorp said Aerojet planned to divest its LDACS business.

But in a June 6 letter, the Defense Department asked the FTC to allow the merger, claiming it could help space launch requirements and that the divestiture of the LDACS business would be "impossible due to highly unusual national security circumstances."

Citing the Defense Department's position, the FTC announced June 10 it had closed its investigation and would allow the merger to proceed unchallenged.

East Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp. and Aerojet announced the deal for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., in July 2012. The merger will create a dominant U.S. supplier of liquid-fueled rocket engines in addition to in-space and missile propulsion systems.

Aerojet also is one of two U.S. suppliers of solid-rocket motors, the other being ATK Aerospace of Magna, Utah.

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http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/06/14/gencorp-completes-acquisition-of-pratt-whitney-rocketdyne-from-utc/

GenCorp Completes Acquisition of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from UTC
Posted by Doug Messier
 
on June 14, 2013, at 4:19 pm in News
                                            


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (GenCorp PR) – GenCorp Inc. (NYSE: GY) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all operations of the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne business (Rocketdyne) from United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX). GenCorp will combine Rocketdyne with Aerojet-General Corporation (Aerojet), a wholly-owned subsidiary of GenCorp, and the combined businesses will operate as Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc., headquartered in Sacramento, California.
As part of the Rocketdyne transaction, GenCorp will acquire UTC's 50% interest in the RD Amross joint venture following receipt of Russian regulatory approvals.
"Today is an exciting milestone in the history of GenCorp. This landmark transaction signals the transformation of two rocket propulsion companies into one extraordinary opportunity for the future," said GenCorp President and CEO, Scott Seymour. "The addition of Rocketdyne almost doubles the size of our company and provides additional growth opportunities as we build upon the complementary capabilities of each legacy company, including their talented people and innovative technologies."
"Combined, we bring decades of history that launched the first space age and put mission-critical technology into the hands of our warfighters," Seymour continued. "Our vision for the future is a shared one. We have the best workforce in the industry and we are committed to 100% safety and mission success as we continue to deliver performance, drive innovation and create opportunity. We will continue to be a leader in the next space age."
For more information about Aerojet Rocketdyne, please visit: http://www.rocket.com.
About GenCorp
GenCorp is a diversified company providing innovative solutions to its customers in the aerospace and defense, energy and real estate markets. Additional information about the company can be obtained by visiting the company's website at http://www.gencorp.com.