spacetoday.net: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne put up for sale

Posted: Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 6:27 AM ET (1027 GMT)
United Technologies announced Thursday it would sell Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), the business unit that manufactures rocket engines, to help pay for the acquisition of another aerospace company. United Technologies said that it was selling PWR and several other companies in order to raise $3 billion, which the company will use to refinance its acquisition of aerospace and defense company Goodrich. PWR makes a number of rocket engines, including the RS-68 engine used on the first stage of the Delta 4 and the RL10 engine used on the upper stage of the Atlas 5 and Delta 4. United Technologies officials claimed that the lack of a "national space policy" led them to decide to sell PWR. No specific buyer of PWR has been announced, but United Technologies officials said they expected to receive final bids for the company in several weeks.