Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] signed a contract with Boeing [BA] worth nearly $200 million to complete the design, development, qualification, certification and initial production of the CST-100 Starliner service module propulsion system, according to an Aerojet Rocketdyne statement.
Aerojet Rocketdyne will provide seven shipsets of hardware with options for additional shipsets. Each production hardware shipset will include four Launch Abort Engines (LAE), 24 Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) engines, 28 Reaction Control System (RCS) engines, 164 valves, 12 tanks and more than 500 feet of ducts, lines and tubing. Boeing will assemble hardware kits into the service module section of the CST-100 spacecraft at its Commercial Crew and Cargo processing facility located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Aerojet Rocketdyne also provides hardware supporting the qualification test vehicle; service module hot fire testing; the orbital flight test; and pad abort testing. The CST-100 is scheduled to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA starting in 2017. A CST-100 Starliner partner and team member since 2010, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s work continues the development of the service module and launch abort propulsion system from prior commercial crew contracts with Boeing.
Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) are under contract by NASA for the Commercial Crew program. Aerojet Rocketdyne was unable to respond to a request for comment by press time.