Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., an Alabama unit of the international aerospace major Teledyne, will design and build a launch vehicle stage adapter for NASA's space launch system in a five-year, $60 million deal.

The adapter is a critical element of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's complex, multibillion-dollar space launch system program.

Teledyne Technologies Inc., which has operations in North America and Europe, said its Teledyne Brown Engineering subsidiary in Huntsville would carry out the design and production of the adapter.

The space launch system includes the advanced, heavy-lift rocket that will be NASA's next-generation launch vehicle.

Teledyne experts say the launch vehicle is 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, Teledyne says.

The launch vehicle stage adapter will adapt the space launch system's core stage to what is called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage while providing a protective envelope for the ICPS propulsion system.

Teledyne Brown will partner with Marshall Space Flight Center to use its advanced welding facility for assembly of LVSA components.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said companies in the state 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."

He added, "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.'"

Robert Mehrabian, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Teledyne Technologies, called the space launch system "a centerpiece program for the MSFC and a strategic capability for our nation."

He said the company was "exceedingly pleased to be selected" for the work, which he said builds on more than 50 years of a working relationship with NASA.

The number of personnel who would directly benefit from the contract wasn't discussed by Bentley or Mehrabian.

Teledyne Brown says it has provided full life cycle engineering and prototyping solutions for every major NASA space initiative program from Apollo to SLS. Apollo 11 carried Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong to the moon in a mission July 20-21, 1969.

Teledyne Technologies provides sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defense electronics and engineered systems and has operations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and countries in continental Europe.