ATK Solid Rocket
Motors Help Propel Successful Launch Of Space Shuttle Endeavour
(11 March 2008) Alliant Techsystems'
Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM) and the company's Booster Separation Motors
(BSM) performed flawlessly today for NASA's STS-123 Space Shuttle Endeavour
launch.
The RSRMs provided more than six million pounds of
thrust -- equivalent to 26 jumbo jets at full take-off throttle -- to allow the
shuttle to reach orbit.
Once the RSRMs finished their flight, eight BSMs
-- four on the forward section and four on the aft skirt -- fired to jettison
the RSRMs away from the orbiter and external tank, and allowed the rocket
motors to parachute back down to Earth and be reused. ATK's BSMs are flying on
the forward section of the RSRMs. This flight marks the second launch of ATK's
BSMs. The inaugural flight was on NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis on Feb.
7.
ATK began manufacturing the BSMs for NASA in 2003. The company
redesigned the igniter and made other material upgrades to the BSMs to improve
safety and reliability. The new design takes full advantage of ATK's
state-of-the-art production systems. The BSMs will be used for the remainder of
the Space Shuttle flights as well as future flights of NASA's next-generation
human launch vehicle, the Ares I.
On this mission Endeavour will deliver
the first of two pressurised sections of the Japanese "Kibo" Experiment
Logistics Module, and the Canadian "Dextre" robotics system to the
International Space Station (ISS). The Kibo complex will be completed in May
when Space Shuttle Discovery launches its second pressurised section. "Kibo" is
the Japanese word for hope. "Dextre" is the Canadian Space Agency's newest
contribution to the station. Its full name is the Special Purpose Dexterous
Manipulator, and it will attach to the station's robotic arm, Candarm2, and
allow astronauts to replace hardware outside the station without doing a
spacewalk.
STS-123 is the 122nd Shuttle flight and the 25th U.S. flight
to the ISS. ATK solid rocket motors have flown on each Space Shuttle mission
since the inception of the program in 1981, and today are the only human-rated
solid rocket motors produced in the United States.
ATK is an advanced
weapon and space systems company with annual revenues in excess of US$ 4.1
billion that employs more than 17,000 people in 21 states.
(source:
ATK)
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