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Utah's Alliant Techsystems Inc. said this week its new five-segment rocket motor under development for NASA is ready for flight testing.
The company, known for producing the solid-fuel boosters used in the space shuttle, is designing the new motor to launch the nation's next generation of space-exploration vehicles.
ATK spokeswoman Trina Patterson said the two ground tests carried out over the past year at the company's facilities near Promontory in northwest Utah showed the new motor performed as expected.
"We are continuing to move forward where we can," Patterson said. "We're continuing to work on advancing the avionics [flight controls] for the motor and already have four of the next development motor's five segments cast."
Still, it could be awhile before NASA gets around to actually flight testing a motor.
Marshall Space Flight Center spokeswoman Jennifer Stanfield said although ATK has demonstrated the motor's potential for flight, NASA's current plans are to conduct another ground firing sometime next year.
ATK's new five-segment motor is built around much of the same technology used on the space shuttle's four-segment boosters.
"We were able to incorporate many design changes during the five-segment development that we identified during the shuttle program," Charlie Precourt of ATK's Space Launch Systems said in a statement.
Earlier this month, President Barack Obama signed legislation that drastically alters the nation's plan for space exploration, while at the same time protecting ATK as the primary source of solid-fuel rocket motors for NASA.
Obama previously had proposed eliminating NASA's Constellation program with its goal of returning to the moon in favor of new short-trip commercial space vehicles and possibly landing astronauts on an asteroid.
The president's proposal, though, could have in part eliminated the need for ATK's solid-fuel rocket motors, which could have resulted in the loss of up to 2,000 Utah jobs.
While the legislation Obama signed addressed many of his desires, it bucked him by setting parameters for NASA's development of a new vehicle to launch heavy cargo out of Earth's atmosphere, a vehicle that would use ATK's motors
"Passing this bill is good; it moves us forward," 1st District Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said in late September after the House approved the legislation and sent it to the president for signing. "But it does not save the program by itself. It does not save the jobs. There is a lot of work left to do."
Bishop was referring to the fact that the legislation, while setting parameters for NASA's program, didn't fund them.
"We are still waiting for those appropriations to come though," ATK's Patterson said Friday.