Alliant Techsystems nabs $1.8 billion NASA contract

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 11, 2007

Alliant Techsystems, based in Minnesota, has signed a $1.8 billion contract with NASA to design, develop, test and evaluate the first stage of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles.

The work will be done by Alliant's operations based in Brigham City.

The contract continues work that began in April 2006 and includes delivery of five ground test motors, two ground vibration test components and four flight-test stages. First-stage boosters for operational missions will be supplied through a separate contract, NASA said.

Ares I is a two-stage rocket to transport a crew exploration vehicle to low Earth orbit. Ares V will launch payloads to the moon and later to Mars.

The Ares I first stage will be a five-segment solid-fuel booster based on the four-segment design used for the space shuttle.

The Ares V is expected to use five liquid-oxygen, liquid- hydrogen engines mounted below a larger version of the shuttle's external fuel tank and two five-segment solid-fuel boosters for the first stage.