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Article: Alliant's Rocket Motor Wows NASA
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- October 24, 2003
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Associated Press. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Associated Press. (Hide copyright information)
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AP Online
10-24-2003
Dateline: MINNEAPOLIS
NASA officials are calling the nation's largest space shuttle rocket motor, made by Alliant Techsystems, the most powerful shuttle solid rocket motor ever tested.
NASA officials told the Star Tribune that the successful 128-second test of ATK's motor on Thursday at Alliant's ATK Thiokol Propulsion Division in Promontory, Utah, proved the motor "can be pushed close to the edge and yet still perform flawlessly."
The motor gives NASA new options for greatly increased payloads and for emergency orbits in the event of a post-launch engine failure. NASA hopes the new motor can one day carry 23,000 extra pounds of experiments into space.
However, any future ...