Aurora Signs Contract to Build Minotaur IV Composite Structures

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Tue Sep 2, 2008 3:26pm EDT 

  MANASSAS, VA, Sep 02 (MARKET WIRE) -- 
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that it has been awarded a contract
from Orbital to build Minotaur IV Composite Structures.

    Recognizing that Orbital's strategy was to develop the Minotaur IV Launch
Vehicle at an affordable cost, Aurora plans to build the composite parts
in its low-cost manufacturing facilities in West Virginia, where the
company can provide a combination of lean manufacturing, low labor costs,
and advanced processing methods in modern facilities, resulting in an
economical acquisition cost for the Minotaur IV Composite Structures.

    Aurora is uniquely qualified to build the Minotaur IV Composite Structures
for Orbital as proven with the design and manufacturing of NASA qualified
spaceflight hardware which has flown on 28 space missions, including
numerous human spaceflight experiments and safety critical flight
hardware.

    "Aurora is honored to have been selected by the Orbital to do this work,"
said Aurora Vice President of Aerostructures, Dan Brady. "We take great
pride in our company's leading edge innovation, and our unique
capabilities in composites manufacturing. We have a long history of
working with Orbital and look forward to continuing that tradition."

    The Minotaur IV space launch vehicle leverages the flight-proven heritage
of Orbital's Minotaur, Pegasus, and Taurus space launch vehicles to
provide an extremely cost-effective and capable space launch solution.

    About Aurora Flight Sciences

    Aurora Flight Sciences designs and builds robotic aircraft and other
advanced aerospace vehicles for scientific and military applications.
Aurora is headquartered in Manassas, VA and operates production plants in
Clarksburg, WV and Columbus, MS and a Research and Development Center in
Cambridge, MA. To view recent press releases and more about Aurora please
visit our web site at www.aurora.aero.

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