SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 7 /PRNewswire/

An Aerojet rocket engine on NASA's Cassini spacecraft performed a 96-minute burn on June 30, allowing capture of the spacecraft by Saturn's gravity. The critical burn occurred nearly seven years after the spacecraft was launched aboard a Titan IVB launch vehicle.

"Aerojet's rocket engine assembly performed its most important burn to date on this mission -- ensuring Cassini was captured by Saturn's orbit," said Aerojet President Michael Martin. "Aerojet's engine performed a six-minute burn in late May that demonstrated the spacecraft was ready for Saturn Orbit Insertion. Aerojet employees were thrilled at the outcome of both maneuvers ."

The burn was believed to be the most distant bipropellant engine firing at 1.5 billion kilometers from earth.

Aerojet boasts roles on all aspects of the Cassini mission. The company provided the first- and second-stage liquid rocket engines for the Cassini spacecraft's Titan IV launch vehicle and 12 monopropellant engines on the Centaur upper stage. The company's pair of redundant R-4D lbf bipropellant engines slowed the spacecraft for capture by Saturn's gravity. And, Aerojet provided 16 monopropellant engines for use throughout the mission and during the Saturn Orbit Insertion.

Aerojet built the bipropellant and monopropellant engines on the spacecraft under contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, Colo. Lockheed Martin provided the propulsion system for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which manages the Cassini mission for NASA's office of Space Science.

Cassini will release a probe called Huygens, provided by the European Space Agency, six months after reaching Saturn. The robotic probe will explore the smoggy moon Titan, an event that, according to JPL, is the most distant descent of a robotic probe on another object in the solar system.

Aerojet is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader principally serving the missile and space propulsion, and defense and armaments markets. GenCorp is a technology-based manufacturer with positions in the aerospace and defense, pharmaceutical fine chemicals, real estate and automotive industries. Additional information about GenCorp can be obtained by visiting the Company's web site at http://www.GenCorp.com. For more information, please visit http://www.aerojet.com and http://www.gencorp.com.
 

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