Kaiser Marquardt is to provide 110lb-thrust (490N) bipropellant engines for the attitude control system of the International Space Station (ISS) and 200lb-thrust engines for the ISS Propulsion Module.
The contract has come from Boeing Reusable Systems. The Propulsion Module will share long-term attitude control and re-boost work with the Russian Zvezda service module.
Nine Kaiser Marquardt R-4D engines have also been delivered to DaimlerChrysler Aerospace for the ISS' European Ariane 5-launched Automatic Transfer Vehicle.
Kaiser Marquardt has also successfully demonstrated its R53, 2lb-thrust bipropellant engine at -40°C at NASA's Glenn Research Center for possible application on a future Mars mission. The thruster was fired 60 times for a total of 10,000s.
Source: Flight International
