Rancho's Aerojet Played Critical Role In Mars Mission
RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) - Aerojet in Rancho Cordova helped make NASA's mission to Mars a success from start to finish.
That's because the company created launchers and thrusters providing the power to get Curiosity onto the red planet.
That prompted hugs and high fives at NASA, a celebration among scientists. But these self-admitted space nerds weren't the only ones with piqued curiosity.
Employees of Aerojet proudly geeked out over the glory of this galactic journey.
"We started the journey and ended the journey," said Aerojet program director Sam Wiley. "You sit there and cross your fingers and go, 'Oh my god, I hope this works.'"
Wiley, the space and launch systems director, showed CBS13 what they built that led to the most complicated landing ever.
"As they refer to seven minutes of hell, we had rocket engines that worked in each phases of landing," he said.
This simulation shows the complex plan to take an aircraft going 13,000 miles an hour into Mars' atmosphere and make it stop.
"The last mile was controlled by eight of those rockets that we created that enable this landing," Wiley said.
These thrusters allowed the rover to go fast, move sideways then slow to a hover.
"Look at the post-landing data and they were dead center in the ellipse," he said.
Now Curiosity is sending back several images. It's a remarkable feat not just for what scientists will discover but because of how they got there.
It took Aerojet six years to come up with not just the landing engines. They also built the massive launchers that got the spacecraft into orbit in November.
"We have a better understanding of our universe because of things we've been able to do," Wiley said.
The next big mission for Aerojet is just as out of this world - creating the propulsion for Orion that will allow astronauts to go out into deep space.
