Conference 7.286::space

609.0. "New SRB plant in Mississippi" by 19458::FISHER (Prune Juice: A Warrior's Drink!) Tue Apr 17 1990 23:05

Article 67 of clari.tw.space
Path: shlump.nac.dec.com!decwrl!uunet!looking!clarinews
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.tw.aerospace,clari.news.aviation,clari.news.military
Subject: Mississippi joins space age
Keywords: space, science, aerospace, defense industry, air transport,
	transportation, air force, military
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 11 Apr 90 17:29:08 GMT
Lines: 55
Approved: [email protected]
Xref: shlump.nac.dec.com clari.tw.space:67 clari.tw.aerospace:32 clari.news.aviation:98 clari.news.military:268
ACategory: usa
Slugword: nasaplant
Priority: daily
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 581; Id: a1445; Sel: na--a; Adate: 4-11-105ped
Codes: ynssrxx., ybearxx., ybtarxx., ynmfrxx.


	IUKA, Miss. (UPI) -- A $1.2 billion plant to build safer, more
powerful solid-fuel boosters for the space shuttle program will create
1,500 permanent jobs and an annual payroll of $45 million, officials
say.
	Top NASA and state officials attended a ground-breaking ceremony
Tuesday, hailing the new plant as a major step forward for both
Mississippi and the nation's space program.
	``This region is on the threshold of new opportunities and things
that can't even be imagined,'' said Lowell Zoller, manager of the
advanced solid rocket motor project office at Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala.
	The giant facility, located at the Tennessee Valley Authority's
abandoned Yellow Creek nuclear plant site in Tishomingo County, is
expected to be a boon to northern Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama,
generating 1,900 construction jobs in the first two years.
	Once in operation, the booster project is expected to create 1,500
permanent jobs carrying about annual payroll of $45 million.
	NASA is expected to sign a contract with Lockheed and Aerojet
corporations to build the rocket motors. Charles Lavinsky, president of
Aerojet, said the paper work should be completed by May 4.
	Full-scale construction should begin at the plant sometime this
summer and NASA expects the facility to be operational by 1992, he said.
	``It's a wonderful start of the decade of the `90s,'' said Gov. Ray
Mabus. ``We're starting a new day in Mississipi. There are many
possibilities before us. Now we have to make sure the possibilities
become realities.
	``The location of this NASA facility here shows we can compete with
anybody in the United States and with anybody in the world,'' the
governor said.
	NASA director Richard Truly, a Mississippi native, sent a letter
praising the plant's location.
	He said the motors to be tested and manufactured at the plant will
produce a ``state-of-the-art technology that will be a model for the
industry.''
	The advanced solid rocket motor project was proposed after the Jan.
28, 1986, Challenger disaster that killed seven astronauts.
	The shuttle's destruction was blamed on a faulty O-ring seal in the
ship's right-side booster. The boosters, built by what is now Thiokol
Corp. of Ogden, Utah, were redesigned in the wake of the disaster to
make them less susceptible to failure.
	At the same time, NASA began exploring alternative designs and the
result was the ASRM program.
	The new rocket motors, scheduled for first flight in 1994, will
allow space shuttles to carry an additional 12,000 pounds of cargo into
low-Earth orbit.
	In addition, the propoellant will be more powerful and the
shuttle's three liquid-fueled main engines will not have to throttle
down as they do now to minimize aerodynamic stress during the first
minute of flight.
	Instead, the liquid-fueled engines will be able to remain at full
power throughout launch, eliminating some 175 possible failure modes.
	The new boosters will be segmented like the current version but
their O-ring joints will be redesigned to make them even safer than the
ones resulting from the Challenger disaster.

Does this mean that Thiokol will no longer be a supplier of SRBs once this plant
goes into full-scale production?  Any word on who these people are?  Spin-off of
MTI?

Seems like a logical development...

...Roger...

    The article says this plant is for the Advanced SRBs. Lockheed won the
    contract for these. Thiokol did not bid. I'm not sure where Aerojet
    fits in; perhaps as a subcontractor to Lockheed.
    
    gary

We've currently got one resident on site working a whole suite of issues.

Iuka -- the town with more VAXen than stoplights!!!  (They've got one 
traffic light there...  8^)

Aaron
Huntsville, AL