Jane Edwards
Aerojet Rocketdyne has received a potential $67 million contract to develop an electric propulsion system for integration with NASA’s Solar Electric Propulsion space vehicles.
The company said Thursday the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract was awarded under the Advanced Electric Propulsion System program and covers development and qualification work on five 12.5-kilowatt Hall thruster subsystems for the Solar Electric Propulsion spacecraft.
Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of advanced space and launch systems at Aerojet Rocketdyne, said the AEPS program aims to facilitate logistics and cargo transportation efforts in support of human exploration missions to Mars through Solar Electric Propulsion vehicles.
The thruster subsystems that Aerojet Rocketdyne will develop under the contract include xenon flow controllers and power processing units that are under development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Glenn Research Center.
