Heavy-Lift Booster Delivers Classified Payload
Alliant Techsystems propulsion and composite technologies supported today’s successful launch of a Lockheed Martin Titan IVB rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. that will place a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office into orbit.
Two ATK Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade (SRMU) boosters provided more than 3.4 million pounds of thrust during the first two minutes of the Titan IVB launch. Each booster, packaged in graphite epoxy cases manufactured by ATK, measures 112 feet in length and 10.5 feet in diameter, and weighs over 770,000 pounds. The SRMU boosters have been flying on Titan IVB missions since February 1997.
Additional ATK solid rocket motors were used in booster and stage separation. Staging rockets safely moved the spent SRMU boosters away from the launch vehicle.
After the liquid second-stage engine completed its burn, four ATK STAR(TM) 5CB retrorockets jettisoned the spent second stage from the vehicle.
Built by Lockheed Martin, the Titan IVB is one of the nation’s largest, most powerful expendable launch vehicles, capable of boosting up to 47,800 pounds into low-Earth orbit or more than 12,700 pounds into geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth. The venerable Titan IVB has delivered 100-percent mission success.
ATK is the world’s largest supplier of solid rocket motors, with a product portfolio that ranges from 3-inch diameter spin motors to the Space Shuttle’s Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM). The company is also a leading manufacturer of composite structures for space launch vehicles, satellites, spacecraft, and commercial and military aircraft.
ATK is a $3.1 billion advanced weapon and space systems company employing approximately 14,500 people in 23 states. News and information can be found on the Internet at www.atk.com.
