SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aerojet, a GenCorp company, announced today that its engine helped propel the Delta II 7320-10 C launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) to put the NOAA-N Prime satellite into orbit for NASA and NOAA. The satellite's instruments will provide ongoing collection, measurements, storage and transmission of Earth's atmosphere, cloud cover and surface data.
Aerojet, under contract to United Launch Alliance, provided the Delta II rocket's liquid second stage engine. This was Aerojet's 268th successful Delta launch since 1960.
This same engine has supported launches of critical NASA missions such as MESSENGER, Phoenix Mars Lander, GLAST, THEMIS, STEREO, Deep Impact and the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) spacecraft, as well as the USAF Global Positioning System (GPS) Block IIR fleet. This particular engine's launch history began in 1958 when Aerojet provided second stage propulsion for the Vanguard-1 mission. Over the years, the engine's performance has been improved so that today it has the power and reliability needed to assist in critical missions such as today's NOAA-N Prime satellite launch. "We've been launching this rocket for years, but it's still a thrill to see it jump from the pad and hear the engines roar," says Richard Yanick, director of Delta II and Space Tank Production Programs.
Aerojet is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader principally serving the missile and space propulsion, defense and armaments markets. GenCorp is a leading technology-based manufacturer of aerospace and defense products and systems with a real estate segment that includes activities related to the entitlement, sale, and leasing of the company's excess real estate assets. Additional information about Aerojet and GenCorp can be obtained by visiting the companies' Web sites at http://www.aerojet.com/ and http://www.gencorp.com/.
