July 30, 2010

Honeywell has been selected by United Launch Alliance to provide primary avionics components for guidance and navigation of the Atlas V rocket in a follow-on contract worth up to $90 million over the life of the long-term contract.

Honeywell will provide the Fault Tolerant Inertial Navigation Unit (FTINU) and the Redundant Rate Gyro Unit (RRGU).  Honeywell’s RRGU is flight-proven avionics for launch vehicle guidance, navigation and control subsystems.

“Honeywell’s products allow the Atlas V rocket, which carries satellites into space, to insert the satellite into orbit closer to the intended target location, saving fuel and extending the life of the satellite,” said Dave Douglass, vice president for Space, Missiles and Munitions at Honeywell Aerospace.

Honeywell will deliver 25 FTINU and 38 RRGU beginning in late 2010 and continue through September 2016.  Honeywell’s FTINU and RRGU work together to perform inertial measurement functions and to provide computer processing capability for the inertial and flight software.  The most recent Atlas V launch included the U.S. military’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), which is the United States’ newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft.