Aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney is pondering potentially selling its rocket systems developer Rocketdyne.
Speaking at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit 2011 in Washington, Pratt &Whitney president David Hess revealed that the company was…
Aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney is pondering potentially selling its rocket systems developer Rocketdyne.
Speaking at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit 2011 in Washington, Pratt &Whitney president David Hess revealed that the company was considering strategic options for its subsidiary and that it had received expressions of interest over a potential offer for the rocket propulsion specialist.
Hess emphasized that Pratt & Whitney was weighing up all options and that consolidation was just one of them. He added that there was no urgency in making a decision and that if they did sell Rocketdyne it would not be at a discount.
The strategic review has predominantly been prompted by the recent decision to end the space shuttle programme and NASA’s future budgetary concerns. This, according to Hess, has led to a greater uncertainty over Rocketdyne’s future revenue streams.
Speculation over which companies might be interested in Rocketdyne has centred on aerospace and defence firms GenCorp and Alliant Techsystems. The latter recently announced that it was moving its corporate headquarters from Minnesota to Virginia as part of an expansion strategy.
Pratt & Whitney, which is itself a subsidiary of technology giant United Technologies Corp, acquired Rocketdyne from Boeing for approximately US$700m back in February 2005. The company was then merged with Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion to form Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
Rocketdyne was formed by North America Aviation in the aftermath of the Second World War to adapt the German V-2 missile into a rocket engine. Since then Rocketdyne’s engines have been used on Lockheed Martin’s Atlas 2 rockets and Boeing’s Delta IV rockets, the latter of which is used by United Launch Alliance. Rocketdyne also provided the main engine for the space shuttle.
