When the Artemis II mission took off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, its crucial first two minutes were dependent on the work of engineers in Utah.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket that lifted the Orion spacecraft and its four astronauts out of Earth’s atmosphere and on their way to circle the moon was powered by twin five-segment solid rocket boosters built at Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing plant in Promontory, in Box Elder County, the company announced.

The boosters generated 7.2 million pounds of thrust in those first two minutes, the company said in a statement Wednesday evening, “lifting the vehicle off the pad and powering it through the greatest atmospheric force on its ascent.”

Northrop Grumman also built two solid rocket motors for the spacecraft’s Launch Abort System, a safety system that sits atop the Space Launch System.

The abort system was designed to lift the crew module away if an emergency arises on the launch pad or during ascent. The launch abort motor was built in the company’s Magna facility; the attitude control motor was manufactured in Maryland.

The Artemis II mission is scheduled for 10 days, orbiting Earth before swinging around the moon, then returning to splash down in the Pacific.

Three Americans and one Canadian are on board the Orion spacecraft. It’s the first time NASA has sent astronauts toward Earth’s satellite since the Apollo missions ended in 1972.

More than 400 Utahns gathered at Salt Lake City’s Clark Planetarium to watch Wednesday’s launch live in the facility’s IMAX theater, a planetarium spokesperson said. Northrop Grumman is the IMAX theater’s title sponsor.

Thiokol Chemical Corportation opened the Promontory facility in 1957, joining the space race shortly after the Soviet Union launched the first Sputnik satellites, according to a history article published by Utah State University. Northrop Grumman acquired Thiokol’s successor, Orbital ATK, in 2017.