Joanna Crews
Aerojet Rocketdyne has produced and delivered engines that Boeing will integrate into spacecraft the latter company is building under NASA‘s Commercial Crew Program.
Boeing will install MR-104J engines on the CST-100 Starliner crew module inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Thursday.
Each Starliner capsule is designed for reuse up to 10 times and will feature 12 MR-104J engines to power the vehicle during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Aerojet Rocketdyne developed MR-104J to produce more than 100 pounds of thrust, function in extreme space temperature and meet Boeing’s flight engine requirement.
The propulsion maker will also provide reaction control thrusters, orbital maneuvering and attitude control engines for service modules and launch abort engines for Starliner.
Boeing intends for its spacecraft to ferry up to four NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
Starliner’s crew module is built to transport up to seven passengers or a combination of crew and cargo on low Earth-orbit space missions.
