Booster for Pratt and Whitney

NASA has awarded a $1.2bn contract to California-based Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne for the design, development, testing and evaluation of the J-2X engine for the Ares-class rockets.

The cost-plus-award-fee contract includes ground and test flight engines.

The J-2X, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, was designed to power the upper stages of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles. It is an upgraded version of the Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne’s J-2 engine, which powered the Apollo Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets, and the J-2S, a simplified version of the J-2 that was developed and tested in the early 1970s.

Ares I is an in-line, two-stage rocket designed to transport the Orion six-strong crew exploration vehicle to low Earth orbit. The first stage will consist of a single reusable solid propellant rocket booster, and the upper stage will consist of a liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen-fuelled J-2X engine and a new upper stage fuel tank.