Aerojet Celebrates Historic Landing of Phoenix Mars Lander

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aerojet, a GenCorp NYSE: GY company, celebrates the successful May 25 landing on Mars by NASA's Phoenix spacecraft. Aerojet provided mission-critical propulsion for all phases of the voyage ranging from launch, cruise and for the smooth landing onto the northern polar region of Mars. This landing, the first successful actively guided descent onto the Martian surface since 1976, used 12 pulsing monopropellant hydrazine engines to guide the spacecraft to the surface. Eight Aerojet cruise engines guided the spacecraft en route.

Aerojet has provided propulsion for all of NASA's Mars orbital and lander missions since 1975. These include the Viking landers, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, 2001 Mars Odyssey, Spirit and Opportunity and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The success of the Phoenix lander extends this proud Aerojet heritage. "Aerojet joins NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and our customer, Lockheed Martin, in celebration of this Mars landing," said Aerojet Vice President of Space Systems, Julie Van Kleeck. "We look forward to significant scientific returns from the spacecraft and landers."

NASA's Phoenix mission is lead by the University of Arizona, Tucson with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin.

Aerojet is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader principally serving the missile and space propulsion, defense and armaments markets. GenCorp is a leading technology-based manufacturer of aerospace and defense products and systems with a real estate segment that includes activities related to the entitlement, sale, and leasing of the company's excess real estate assets. Additional information about Aerojet and GenCorp can be obtained by visiting the companies' Web sites at http://www.Aerojet.com and http://www.GenCorp.com.