Opinion: Pratt Whitney: Smoke & Fire – Not Smoke & Mirrors

[youtube_video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wynOKjPTmZU[/youtube_video]

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has released this video detailing the company’s involvement in many successful launches last year. The video points out that while others were “talking” about launch – Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s engines have been launching. The point the firm makes is clear, while others have been releasing slick videos, PowerPoint presentations and promises about what is just around the corner – the California-based firm –  has been doing it.  

The company’s offeries include the RS-25  Space Shuttle Main Engine, the RS-68 engine used on the first stage of the Delta IV, the RL-10 used on the Delta IV’s upper stage as well as the Centaur that is employed by the Atlas family of rockets. Pratt & Whitney also provided some of the engines that were used on Boeing’s X-51 Waverider hypersonic demonstration test flight and the DC-X “Delta Clipper.”

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, designs and manufactures liquid-fueled rocket engines. Although the company is based out of Canoga Park, Calif, – it operates facilities in West Palm Beach, and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Huntsville, Alabama and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The company was formed in 2005 under a merger between Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion and Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power.

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