Avtex, the nation’s sole producer of carbonized...

Avtex, the nation’s sole producer of carbonized rayon yarn for rocket motors, will receive a $43-million government rescue package, Pentagon and NASA officials said. The yarn enables rocket motors to burn smoothly. NASA earlier had committed $7 million to help keep the Front Royal, Va., firm open, as well as to obtain Avtex’s trade secrets and formulas for producing the yarn. To complete the package, the Pentagon pitched in $20 million, NASA raised its stake to $18 million, and the agencies will share a $5 million “emergency fund.”