Teledyne to Build NASA’s $60 Million Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter

February 4, 2014

Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., has been awarded a five-year $60 million contract by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to design and manufacture the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA) for the Space Launch System (SLS).

The SLS, NASA’s next generation launch vehicle, is an advanced, heavy-lift vehicle, designed to provide safe, affordable, and sustainable access to science and human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. It will carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle as well as cargo, equipment, and science missions into deep space.

The LVSA, a critical element of the SLS, will adapt the SLS core stage to the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) while providing a protective envelope for the ICPS propulsion system. Teledyne Brown will partner with MSFC to use its Advanced Welding Facility for assembly of LVSA components.

“Alabama companies like Teledyne offer skilled, hard-working people the ability to provide for their families and the opportunity to build high-technology products ranging from airplanes to automobiles to human spaceflight,” Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said. “We are proud that Teledyne Brown Engineering and NASA/MSFC continue to secure the ability for America’s next heavy-lift rocket to be stamped with the marker ‘Made in Alabama.’”

“The Space Launch System is a centerpiece program for MSFC and a strategic capability for our nation,” said Robert Mehrabian, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Teledyne Technologies. “We are exceedingly pleased to be selected for this work and to build on our more than 50-year history with NASA.”