ATK Successfully Tests New Rocket Motor
(Promontory, Utah)--SALT TV NETWORK
The successful test of a new generation of space rocket is offering a glimmer of hope to thousands of workers at the ATK test facility near Promontory Point.
ATK says Tuesday's test of the Ares rocket motor went off without a hitch, calling it a milestone in the development of America's next generation of space launch vehicles.
The main objective for the ground test was to measure the rocket's performance in cold temperatures. Prior to firing, the rocket's core had been cooled to 40 degrees considered to be in the lowest range of NASA's operational temperatures.
According to ATK, the rocket performed flawlessly.
Charlie Precourt, a former shuttle pilot and vice president and general manager of ATK's Space Launch Systems, said the data collected confirms the viability of the Ares rocket, a system ATK hoped would be the primary means for lifting NASA vehicles into lower earth orbit and beyond, part of the so-called Constellation program.
The future of the Constellation plan is in jeopardy, however, as NASA shifts its focus from a return to manned moon missions and a future trips to Mars, to less ambitious goals, like shuttling astronauts to and from the International Space Station and lifting satellites and other cargo loads into low earth orbit.
The Obama administration announced it was canceling the Constellation program earlier this year and redirected funding to other NASA programs, including billions of dollars in incentives for private commercial firms to develop the next rocket system.
This redirecting of that funding, coupled with the end of the space shuttle program, is casting a shadow over ATK's Utah operations. A thousand plus workers have lost their jobs in the last year and the prospects of more layoffs loom.
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch attended Tuesday's test. He and Senator Bob Bennett are lobbying fellow lawmakers to rebuff Obama's vision for future space exploration, trying instead to fashion NASA spending priorities guaranteeing solid rocket development into the foreseeable future. If that happens thousands of Utah jobs could be saved.
A major point of contention in the Obama plan which is giving the Hatch agenda traction is the decision to allow the shuttle program to expire while waiting for commercial developers to build the shuttle fleet's replacements. That means the U.S. would have to rely on Russia or China to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the space station until those systems become a reality. That doesn't sit well with Hatch and others in congress.
Although NASA has extended the shuttle program by at least one mission, NASA's need for shuttle rocket motors is ending under the current plan and that too could cement the fate of hundreds of Utah workers. The legislation being pushed by the Utah delegation could circumvent all that, but it is still in committee with no guarantees it will see the light of day.
ATK currently employees 18,000 workers in 24 states and outside the U.S. It has an annual revenue of nearly five billion dollars.
