Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has completed more than 1,600 successful booster missions with its rocket engines. That's the highest number of launches ever achieved by a U.S. company.

With a track record stretching back to the Eisenhower administration, PWR carried the first U.S. astronauts into space and to the moon, deployed satellites on planetary orbits, and lifted deep-space telescopes that found galaxies near the dawn of time. In August, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne hit the 1,600 mark with the successful launch of the GeoEye-1 commercial satellite.

After launching the first American Redstone Rocket in 1953, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's family of engines went on to boost satellites that predict hurricanes; provide military and intelligence applications; map, measure and monitor the environment; and supply communications, global positioning and navigational systems throughout the world. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Space Shuttle Main Engines continue to launch astronauts and equipment bound for the International Space Station with 100 percent mission success. And with the J-2X, RS-68, and Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine propulsion systems, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne stands poised to carry astronauts back to the moon and beyond. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is also expanding into hypersonics, developing a propulsion system for a hydrocarbon scramjet, a military plane that will travel at supersonic speeds greater than Mach 5, as well as propulsion systems that will help defend the nation against ballistic missile attacks.

Select this graphic for additional information...





hgl