BOEING AWARDED SHUTTLE CONTRACT FIVE-YEAR BOOST FOR ROCKETDYNE.Byline: Staff and Wire Services CANOGA PARK - A $1.14 billion contract for space shuttle main engine
The Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) are the three main engines on the Space Shuttle orbiter. maintenance and support was awarded to Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power unit, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), said Friday. The five-year contract calls for Canoga Park-based Rocketdyne to support continuing flight and test engineering, engine refurbishment and the manufacture, assembly and testing of three additional main engines. The existing staff will be used for the work for now, but additional jobs might be created in the future, said Dan Beck, a spokesman for Boeing's Rocketdyne unit. ``We're very excited about this,'' Beck said. ``It continues a solid relationship between us and NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the original home of NASA, is a lead center for propulsion, Space Shuttle propulsion, Shuttle external fuel tank, crew training and payloads, International Space Station (ISS) design and construction, for computers, networks, and in Huntsville, Ala.'' The contract also includes support for engine processing at Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral) U.S. launch site for manned space missions. [U.S. Hist.: WB, So:562] See : Astronautics , Fla., and test firings at John C. Stennis Space Center The John C. Stennis Space Center (or SSC), located in Hancock County, Mississippi at the Mississippi/Louisiana border, is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility. , Miss. ``It's a much-needed boost,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. ``Money is coming into the aerospace sector in Los Angeles in dribs and drabs. There are no stunningly huge contracts but when you put it all together, it means jobs.'' Rocketdyne has assembled 106 shuttle main engines since 1972. Each shuttle uses three main engines during launch into orbit. |
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