6.04.2018

Orbital ATK's solid rocket motor, previously found in nuclear ICBMs, finds a second and more peaceful life.

Nearly 1,000 people, including busloads of local school kids, have gathered at Orbital ATK’s rocket manufacturing facility in Promontory, Utah. They have come to catch a glimpse of the past and future of rocketry. And to see a big boom.

Sitting on a test stand, its exhaust pointed at an empty section of Utah scrubland, is a SR118 solid rocket motor. It was originally built to launch Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles, a system that the Air Force discontinued in 2002.

Why is Orbital ATK testing a retired rocket engine? These monsters still have their uses. In the case of this March 29 test fire, NASA and Lockheed Martin are using a surplus Peacekeeper motor to loft a rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft in a high-flying test of the capsule’s emergency abort system.

Orion is the spacecraft that NASA wants to use for human exploration missions, mounted on the Space Launch System rocket. This test will verify that the 34-year-old rocket can perform as expected during that upcoming test.

Check out video of the test and hear a sound that once would have meant the end of the world.

Quelle: PM