Aerojet Rocketdyne wins $1.4 billion in contracts from NASA, Boeing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc on Monday announced contracts from NASA and Boeing Co with a combined value of nearly $1.36 billion, welcome news for the company after several recent financial setbacks.

Aerojet said it had won a $1.16 billion contract from NASA to restart production of its RS-25 engine once used for the space shuttle program for the new Space Launch System (SLS), a powerful rocket designed to eventually take humans to Mars.

The company said it had improved the RS-25 production lines since the retirement of the space shuttle program to incorporate new technologies such as 3-D printing, lower the number of parts and welds, and make them more efficient.

The SLS rocket will use four RS-25 engines to produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust, with a first flight test expected in 2018.

Separately, Aerojet also announced that it had signed a contract with Boeing valued at nearly $200 million to complete the design, development, qualification, certification and initial production of the propulsion system for the NASA Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 "Starliner" service module.

Under the contract, Aerojet said it would provide seven sets of hardware, with each including four launch abort engines, 24 engines for on-orbit maneuvering and attitude control, 28 engines for the reaction control system (RCS) engines and other equipment. It also includes options for more engines.

The CST-100 Starliner is scheduled to start ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station in 2017.

The two contract announcements came after Aerojet lost a key solid rocket motor contract to its rival Orbital ATK and separately agreed to pay Orbital $50 million to settle a dispute stemming from a rocket launch accident last year that destroyed a load of cargo bound for the International Space Station.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)