Thiokol Touts Solid Rocket Booster for CEV Launcher

摘要

Seeking to preserve a program that has been its biggest revenue producer for some 25 years, ATK Thiokol is pitching the giant solid-rocket boosters it builds for NASA's space shuttle as the basis for a launch system that would send astronauts on their way both to the international space station and the Moon. Ron Dittemore, president of ATK Thiokol of Brigham City, Utah, says NASA could kill two birds with one stone by developing a shuttle-derived vehicle to loft the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) that NASA hopes to replace the space shuttle with around 2010. The CEV initially will be used to transport astronauts to and from the international space station, and eventually will serve the same purpose when the Moon becomes NASA's destination sometime between 2014 and 2020.