Last One

Lockheed Martin workers in NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility expect to finish the last of 134 space shuttle external tanks by the end of June before shutting down the production line for the huge aluminum-lithium structures. They have already resettled the tank—designated ET-128-back in the horizontal position after hoisting it upright to splice the liquid oxygen/intertank section to the 96.7-ft. liquid oxygen tank that rides at the bottom of the tank portion of the shuttle stack. The LOX tank that forms the nose of the external tank is 54.6 ft. long, and the intertank structure measures 22.5 ft. Completion of the tank for shipment to Kennedy Space Center is planned for June 29, to support the scheduled September 16 launch of the shuttle Discovery on the final mission of the space shuttle era before the three-orbiter fleet is retired. The government-owned fabrication facility was slated to be used by Boeing to assemble the upper stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle, but the Obama administration has canceled that program along with the rest of the Constellation Program of post-shuttle vehicles.

ATK Officials Confident About Company’s Future

Although plenty of uncertainty still looms over NASA’s Constellation program, and local company ATK’s role in it, ATK officials remain optimistic for the future.

When U.S. President Barack Obama released his proposed budget that cut funding from the program, it meant the new Ares I rocket program, which is ATK’s main space contract right now, could be facing the chopping block as well. Should that happen, it could put ATK’s space programs, and the thousand-plus Promontory jobs that go with it, in jeapordy.

Yet despite the challenges, many ATK employees and officials are remaining optimistic about the company’s future.

“The team here is incredibly valued across the aerospace community and with our NASA partners here,” said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of ATK Space Launch Systems. “In spite of the turmoil of the current moment, I remain extremely optimistic that the value remains, the quality and the unique product of the great people out here remain and will continue to contribute great things because of the unique asset they provide. It’s something we need regardless of what the future vehicles look like. I think the company has a very bright future.”

Precourt’s sentiments about the company’s unique workforce were echoed by Steve Cash, manager of the Shuttle Propulsion Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

“This is some of the best of the best right here. The talent that’s here, and the knowledge base that’s been built here are things this nation is going to depend on to go forward,” Cash said. “They’re going to be part of whatever gets us back to the moon, to Mars [or] to an asteroid.”

Speculation has been rampant over the past few weeks as to what would happen to the thousands of space-related workers at ATK’s Promontory facility should the President’s budget pass through Congress. But the message some officials were trying to convey last week during the final test of the Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) was to take a wait and see approach.