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$287,084,371

National Aeronautics and Space Administration·National Aeronautics and Space Administration

to AEROJET ROCKETDYNE, INC.

aerospaceactiveONGOING · MOD OF 2016 CONTRACT
WORK BEGAN2016-04-01·LATEST ACTION2026-06-26·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDCONT_AWD_NNM16AA12C_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-
Award description

EXPLORATION UPPER STAGE ENGINES MSFC WILL PROCURE TEN (10) RL10 FLIGHT ENGINES FROM AEROJET ROCKETDYNE, INC. TO SUPPORT THE SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM (SLS) EXPLORATION MISSIONS 2 AND 3 (EM-2 AND EM-3). EACH FLIGHT WILL REQUIRE A FOUR (4) ENGINE CLUSTER. ADDITIONALLY, TWO (2) SPARE ENGINES WILL BE PROCURED. CORRESPONDING TO THESE SPECIFIC RL10 ENGINES, NASA MSFC WILL PROCURE VEHICLE AND PROGRAM INTEGRATION SUPPORT, FLIGHT SUPPORT, AND HUMAN RATING COMPLIANCE REVIEW SUPPORT.

Verbatim from USAspending.gov. Capitalization, abbreviations, and codes are unchanged.

The Buildout's read

What the model surfaced from this award

Confidence: high
In plain English

Latest obligation on the 2016 RL10 engine contract to procure ten flight engines and spares for NASA's Space Launch System Exploration Missions 2 and 3.

Sub-sectors
space-launch-systemupper-stage-enginesexploration-missions
Why this matters

SLS is critical U.S. deep-space exploration infrastructure; this sustains the engine supply chain for crewed lunar missions through 2028.

Supply-chain signal

Aerojet Rocketdyne remains sole supplier of RL10 upper-stage engines; this multi-year commitment locks in production capacity for NASA's flagship heavy-lift program.

U.S.–China competition angle

SLS is central to U.S. lunar return strategy and cislunar dominance; sustained engine procurement counters Chinese space ambitions.

Generated by award_classification v2.1.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-05-19. Cost: $0.003292.

Period of performance
Start
2016-04-01
End
2028-12-31
Status
activein 915 days
Sources

The Buildout does not edit federal records. Any inaccuracy reflects the upstream source; it will update here when corrected there.

$287.1M National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Buildout — The Buildout