Last - Ever Space Shuttle SRB Test Firing by ATK & NASA - The Final Booster

Earlier today, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and NASA successfully performed the final ground test of a reusable solid rocket motor (RSRM) for the Space Shuttle program at ATK's Promontory, Utah facility. The test marks the completion of a 30-year program that continuously improved the RSRM's performance and safety features.

Since 1988, 210 RSRMs have flown on 105 shuttle missions. ATK has conducted 34 ground tests during that period that have enabled new materials, enhanced performance, and human rated safety margins to be adequately tested and verified before incorporating them into flight hardware.

The solid rocket motor tested today measures more than 126 feet in length and 12 feet in diameter. It generated the equivalent of 15 million horsepower throughout the duration of the test, which lasted approximately two minutes.

A total of 43 design objectives were measured through 258 instrument channels.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ATK
• NASA
• Alliant Techsystems
• SRB
• SRM
• RSRM
• solid rocket booster
• solid
• rocket
• booster
• fire
• firing
• test
• static
• Promontory
• Utah
• space
• shuttle
• space shuttle

[spacearium]

I think the appropriate term is "bittersweet". There's going to be a lot of that this year, sadly.

[metubegirl69er]

i wounder if it gets good gas mileage

[proaudiohd]

@vicorly - It was years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, to do something we have already done.

[TooMuchGass]

That was a big joint

[vicorly]

@Ferrariman601 I agree. I like Obama (can't stand Republicans),but this decision of his is utterly idiotic. I don't know why he canceled Orion / Ares.I think he was listening too much to Buzz Aldrin.

[Ferrariman601]

@vicorly Obama obviously does not believe that America should be a leader in the world on any front; including science, technology, and exploration. What he has done to the space program is inexcusable. What an insult to all the people who worked on the Apollo missions for example, many of those pioneers are still alive! Now, instead of seeing a manned mission to Mars in their lifetime, they will live to see the manned space program end, only 40 years after we were landing on the moon. Disgrace.

[vicorly]

@Ferrariman601 WTF was Obama thinking?

[Ferrariman601]

Hmm, I wonder if we somehow lined up hundreds of these along the equator and fired them all at once, if we could change the speed of the Earth's rotation...

That one just popped into my head!

On a serious note, it's sad to see the shuttle program ending. It wouldn't be as bad if we knew what would come next, but it appears to me at least that we are at the end of American manned spaceflight.

[CrazyScience]

AHA! I know what you trying to do - moving the mountains. LOL :-p

[TimeLapseSteve]

Awesome, but sad to see as well.