NASA has chosen the J-2X as the engine that will eventually take American astronauts back to the moon. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), a business unit of United Technologies Corp., has been selected by NASA to provide a new version of its Apollo-era J-2 as the propulsion system for the agency's Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) upper stage. The power of the J-2X has been increased relative to the earlier J-2.

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The first launch of a human aboard the J-2X-powered CLV is planned for 2012. The NASA baseline effort calls for seven development engines, two certification engines and one flight-only engine. NASA based its decision on the J-2's performance history as part of the Apollo program, and the fact that the agency could utilize an engine in this thrust class for both the CLV upper stage job; and, in the future, to power the earth departure stage for lunar missions that will be lofted on the planned CLV.

J-2 derivative turbomachinery was used for the powerpack in the XRS-2200 aerospike development engine for the X-33, which was hot-fire tested in 2000, demonstrating PWR's ability to build and integrate the hardware. The agency also cited PWR's long experience in the development of major booster engines as credentials for producing the new J-2X.