Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] is paying Orbital ATK [OA] $50 million to settle a disagreement stemming from Orbital ATK’s Antares launch failure in October, according to a Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) filing.
As part of a settlement, the two companies mutually agree to terminate a contract where Aerojet Rocketdyne agreed to provide 20 AJ-26 liquid propulsion rocket engines to Orbital ATK for the Antares program. In exchange for the one-time $50 million payment by Sept. 30, Orbital ATK is returning the title to 10 engines remaining to be delivered under the contract. Aerojet Rocketdyne is seeking reimbursement from its insurance of a portion of the settlement costs.
The agreement also settles all claims the parties may have had against each other stemming from the Oct. 28 Antares failure, which took place during a NASA Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) mission to deliver food and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). The explosion took place shortly after liftoff and damaged the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at Wallops Island, Va. The Antares rocket, called ORB-3, was powered by two AJ-26 engines.
Aerojet Rocketdyne spokesman Glenn Mahone said Thursday in a statement both Aerojet Rocketdyne and Orbital ATK submitted their own investigations into the failure to both NASA and the FAA. Mahone, in the statement, declined to provide details of the company’s report, citing proprietary reasons. Mahone said in an email Thursday the settlement precludes both companies from pursuing legal action over the Antares failure.
The AJ-26 is a refurbished NK-33 engine developed by Russian manufacturer Kuznetsov in the late ’60s and early ’70s for the Soviet Union’s N-1 lunar rocket.