Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Prepares Hardware for NASA's First Ares I-X Test Flight

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Prepares Hardware for NASA's First Ares I-X Test
Flight

CANOGA PARK, Calif., April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In preparation for NASA's first
Ares I-X test flight in August, engineers from Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne have
finished pressurizing and loading 1,423 pounds of propellants into heritage
hardware from the Peacekeeper missile system that will be used to help return
humans to the moon by 2020. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a United Technologies
Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.

"Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is working with NASA to use existing military
hardware for a new, non-defense application," said Cy Bruno, Roll Control
System program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. "The Peacekeeper helped
end the Cold War and now it is being used for our first step back to the
moon."

Under an agreement with Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne will use hardware from the Peacekeeper missile program to provide
rocket stability during NASA's first Ares I-X test flight. The Roll Control
System (RoCS) will keep the Ares I-X from rolling in a corkscrew motion during
flight. The heritage hardware includes thrusters, propellant tanks and a
pressurization system, which Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne built for the U.S. Air
Force's Peacekeeper missile system fourth stage during the Cold War. The
Peacekeeper missile was decommissioned as part of the second Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty but was resurrected for the Ares I-X test flight system
because it is reliable, available and able to handle the pulsing cycle needed
for the test.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne helped Teledyne Brown Engineering design the RoCS,
which has two thrusters that will fire alongside the test rocket in short
pulses to control the vehicle's roll. After clearing the launch tower in a
test scheduled at Kennedy Space Center in July, the Ares I-X rocket will be
rolled 90 degrees to mimic the orientation that the Ares I rocket will use.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc., a part of Pratt & Whitney, is a preferred
provider of high-value propulsion, power, energy and innovative system
solutions used in a wide variety of government and commercial applications,
including the main engines for the space shuttle, Atlas and Delta launch
vehicles, missile defense systems and advanced hypersonic engines.

Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of
aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines. United
Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing
high technology products and services to the global aerospace and commercial
building industries.

SOURCE Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne

Bryan Kidder, +1-818-586-2213, bryan.kidder@pwr.utc.com, or Carri Karuhn,
+1-818-586-4963, carri.karuhn@pwr.utc.com, both of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne