|
George Torres
|
|
Tuesday, 11 March 2008 |
Alliant Techsystems' (NYSE: ATK) 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 pressurized 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 pressurized 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 $4.1 billion that employs more than 17,000 people in 21 states. |
Aerospace Industry and Business News