DULLES, Virginia, December, 2019 – Aerojet Rocketdyne recently achieved a tremendous milestone with the delivery of its 20,000th rocket engine built at the company’s Redmond, Washington site. The engine – a 0.2 pound thrust MR-103G – was received by Northrop Grumman in Dulles, Virginia, on October 29.
Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman representatives celebrate the 20,000th delivery milestone at Northrop Grumman’s facility in Dulles, VA.
Aerojet Rocketdyne provides engines to Northrop Grumman under a Strategic Partnering Agreement, delivering engines to the company in batches for a variety of missions, rather than individual deliveries for each separate program.
“Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne have a strong history of working together,” said Ken Young, General Manager of Aerojet Rocketdyne Redmond Operations. “The Strategic Partnering Agreement will ensure that this successful track record continues forward to support future Northrop Grumman satellites, spacecraft, and the OmegA Launch Vehicle.”
Aerojet Rocketdyne engines have supported nearly every Northrop Grumman spacecraft flown, including GeoStar-2 and GeoStar-3 communications satellites, the Cygnus spacecraft, Mission Extension Vehicle, Long Duration Propulsive ESPA platforms, the NASA DAWN spacecraft, and a host of other missions.
32 Aerojet Rocketdyne monopropellant thrusters assist Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus Spacecraft with berthing to the International Space Station during resupply missions. Photo credit: NASA
“Aerojet Rocketdyne Redmond has been an innovative industry leader for in-space propulsion for over 50 years,” continued Young. “Expanding our innovative spirit beyond programs to new partnerships and business models is a prime example of our commitment to continuous improvement.”
To date in 2019, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Redmond facility has delivered 480 engines with 94.4% on-time delivery. Current product offerings span monopropellant, bipropellant and green chemical propulsion areas, as well as a full range of Arcjet, Hall, and Ion electric propulsion platforms. The facility has a long history of enabling space exploration, having provided engines in support of missions to every planet in our solar system, as well as interstellar space.
