NASA recently awarded Lehigh Valley-based Air Products, an industrial gases company, several supply contracts totaling more than $130 million to provide liquid hydrogen to several NASA locations.
NASA uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuel in cryogenic rocket engines.
Under a multi-year, approximately $75 million contract, Air Products will supply liquid hydrogen to support operations at the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Under a more than $57 million contract, Air Products will supply liquid hydrogen to other NASA facilities, including Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss.
“Air Products has a long history of working with NASA, stretching from the very beginning of the United States’ space program to the Apollo 11 moon landing, and to the more recent missions to study Mars,” Francesco Maione, Air Products president of the Americas, said. “We are proud to provide NASA with the industrial gases they need for their important work and look forward to continuing our many decades-long working relationship with the U.S. space program.”
Air Products began working with NASA in 1957 and has supplied the agency with liquid hydrogen and other industrial gases.