NASA To Conduct Space
Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor Test In Utah May 1
(24 April 2008) WHAT: Full-scale,
full-duration test of a space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor designated
Flight Verification Motor No. 2, or FVM-2
WHERE: The test
facility of ATK Launch Systems, a unit of Alliant Techsystems Inc., in
Promontory, Utah, north of Salt Lake City
WHEN: Thursday, May 1, at 1
p.m. MDT; 2 p.m. CDT
NASA will conduct a two-minute, static, or
stationary, firing of a space shuttle re-usable solid rocket motor, FVM-2, at a
Utah test facility. The primary objective is to evaluate possible performance
changes as motors age. Space shuttle solid rocket motors are certified for
flight for five years. FVM-2, at just over seven years old, will be the oldest
reusable solid rocket motor ever fired. FVM-1 was fired in February 2005 at the
age of four years. FVM-1 and FVM-2 are considered "sister" motors because they
were manufactured within the same time frame and from similar materials. This
test will provide a unique opportunity to compare performance data from two
motors of different ages. Both motors were stacked at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center, Fla., destacked and returned to Utah. The test also will provide data
for the Ares I crew launch vehicle and NASA's future exploration goals to
return humans to the moon.
Space shuttle reusable solid rocket booster
motors are routinely tested by the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Booster
Project Office managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala.
(source: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
