The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Wednesday it chose Alliant Techsystems to serve as the prime contractor to design and develop the propulsion system for its next generation of space vehicle that it hopes will provide the means for the further human exploration of the moon, and perhaps Mars.

ATK/Thiokol is under contract with NASA to produce booster motors for the space shuttle through the year 2010, the planned retirement date for that program.

"We were facing the edge of a cliff in 2010," ATK spokesman Bryce Hallowell said. "Now, we should have plenty of work for ATK/Thiokol's 1,500 Utah employees who are involved in building rocket motors for decades to come." The company has operations in West Valley City and Brigham City.

With only minor modifications, ATK/Thiokol intends to use its existing rocket motor technology on NASA's new project, dubbed the Crew Launch Vehicle, or CLV. The value of the new contract with NASA eventually will depend on how many rocket motors are ordered from ATK/Thiokol. The booster motors used on the space shuttle cost about $10 million each.

"We're still looking at booster motors, though, that are similar to what is now used on the shuttle," Michael Kahn, vice president of space launch system at ATK/Thiokol said in April. "A lot is going to depend on how often NASA wants to go to the moon."

Patrick Wiggins, NASA's solar system ambassador in Utah, said the pact with ATK/Thiokol is another milestone for the aerospace industry in Utah.

"As I've always said, there has never been 1 cent of money spent in space," Wiggins said. "Everything is spent here on Earth and it goes to the companies that work with the space program and eventually the families of their employees."

NASA's selection of ATK/Thiokol is a logical step given the company's involvement in providing the solid-fuel rocket booster motors for the shuttle program, said Jake Garn, former Utah senator and astronaut. "It's a proven system. If they [NASA] had decided they wanted to develop a new propulsion system from scratch, they'd be facing years of development and millions of additional dollars in expenses."

As the prime contractor, ATK's role with NASA will expand, Hallowell said.

The solid-rocket booster motors manufactured in Utah are shipped to the launch site, where other NASA contractors are responsible for assembling and connecting them to the shuttle before blastoff. ATK expects to take over that job on the CLV.

Bank of America research analyst Robert Stallard, in a report issued Wednesday before NASA's announcement, said ATK is strategically well positioned going forward for NASA work.

Although the space shuttle is set to be retired, ATK is the only company "baselined" as the sole-source for the entire first stage of the CLV, he wrote.