Alliant Techsystems’ (NYSE: ATK) Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM) and the
company’s Booster Separation Motors (BSM) performed flawlessly today for NASA’s
STS-123 Space Shuttle Endeavour launch. The RSRMs provided more than six million
pounds of thrust — equivalent to 26 jumbo jets at full take-off throttle — to
allow the shuttle to reach orbit.

Once the RSRMs finished their flight, eight BSMs — four on the forward section
and four on the aft skirt — fired to jettison the RSRMs away from the orbiter
and external tank, and allowed the rocket motors to parachute back down to Earth
and be reused. ATK’s BSMs are flying on the forward section of the RSRMs. This
flight marks the second launch of ATK’s BSMs. The inaugural flight was on NASA’s
Space Shuttle Atlantis on Feb. 7.

ATK began manufacturing the BSMs for NASA in 2003. The company redesigned the
igniter and made other material upgrades to the BSMs to improve safety and
reliability. The new design takes full advantage of ATK’s state-of-the-art
production systems. The BSMs will be used for the remainder of the Space Shuttle
flights as well as future flights of NASA’s next-generation human launch
vehicle, the Ares I.

On this mission Endeavour will deliver the first of two pressurized sections of
the Japanese “Kibo” Experiment Logistics Module, and the Canadian “Dextre”
robotics system to the International Space Station (ISS). The Kibo complex will
be completed in May when Space Shuttle Discovery launches its second pressurized
section. “Kibo” is the Japanese word for hope. “Dextre” is the Canadian Space
Agency’s newest contribution to the station. Its full name is the Special
Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, and it will attach to the station’s robotic arm,
Candarm2, and allow astronauts to replace hardware outside the station without
doing a spacewalk.

STS-123 is the 122nd Shuttle flight and the 25th U.S. flight to the ISS. ATK
solid rocket motors have flown on each Space Shuttle mission since the inception
of the program in 1981, and today are the only human-rated solid rocket motors
produced in the United States.

ATK is an advanced weapon and space systems company with annual revenues in
excess of $4.1 billion that employs more than 17,000 people in 21 states. News
and information can be found on the Internet at http://www.atk.com.