[SatNews] Moog Inc. (NYSE: MOG.A and MOG.B) Space and Defense Group supported the recent United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V 541 launch vehicle which carried a classified spacecraft payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from  Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The ULA Atlas V 541 rocket that carried the National Reconnaissance Office satellite into space includes several items supported by Moog. Mission-critical hardware included the Centaur Electromechanical (EM) Thrust Vector Control (TVC) Actuation System that guides the upper stage of the rocket into position to inject the satellite into orbit. This launch marks the first use Moog’s latest redundant upper stage, rad-hard digital controller. The digital controller allows for commonality between both the Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles with a change to the firmware rather than hardware. The controller will be used on all Atlas V missions going forward, including MUOS-3 planned for launch in January 2015. The Delta IV launch vehicles will switch to the digital controller in the future. In addition, Moog provided the Inlet Valves and Propellant Utilization (PU) Motor for the main Oxidizer Control Valve on the RL10 upper stage engine and the Control Valves for the Roll Control Module (RCM) Thrusters.

There's additional information at the Moog infosite: http://www.moog.com/