Conferred For The Company's Role In Helping Save A Stranded Satellite

The Electric Propulsion Technical Committee has presented its Outstanding Achievement Award to Aerojet Rocketdyne for its contribution to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency-1 (AEHF-1) Rescue Team. The team, which included two other aerospace companies and the U.S. Air Force, helped save the AEHF-1 military communications satellite and place it into proper orbit after the spacecraft's main bipropellant engine failed to ignite.

The award was announced at the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics.

"Aerojet Rocketdyne is honored to receive this prestigious award as part of the AEHF-1 Rescue Team," said Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of Space Advanced Programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne. "The team did remarkable work to preserve the full-mission capability of the satellite in the face of tremendous challenges. This rescue paves the way for extending the use of electric propulsion to reduce the cost of next-generation, Department of Defense-related space missions."

The AEHF-1 satellite was successfully launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster in August 2010, and was expected to reach geosynchronous orbit within 100 days. But the bi-propellant propulsion system on the satellite's main engine failed, stranding the AEHF-1 in the wrong orbit and placing it at risk of being a total loss.

The AEHF-1 Rescue Team was assembled and devised a plan to use the spacecraft's smaller hydrazine thrusters to lift the orbit above the atmosphere and then use the electric Hall thruster system to complete the orbit-raising mission--with whisper-like impulses--until it reached its desired orbit 14 months later.

FMI: www.Rocket.com