Aerojet Rocketdyne Secures $600M NASA Contract to Develop Orion Spacecraft's Main Engine

Aerojet Rocketdyne (NYSE: AJRD) has secured a $600 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to develop an engine system for spacecraft to be used in NASA’s lunar exploration program.

The company will help NASA integrate the Orion Main Engine into the primary power and propulsion module of the exploratory vehicle to replace a repurposed Space Shuttle-era engine for the Artemis program’s seventh to 14th missions, the agency said Wednesday.

OME is designed to use bipropellant technology, produce up to 6,000 pounds of thrust and power the spacecraft when entering and departing the moon’s orbit, aborting missions and performing other maneuvers in space.

Aside from engine development work, Aerojet will also support engine design certification and special studies under the single-award IDIQ contract. The performance period commenced Tuesday and will continue through April 23, 2032.

NASA added that it could order additional OME units from the company to power other space exploration missions.

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