SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A Utah company says it tested a solid rocket motor intended as a step toward the design of a next-generation launch vehicle to take astronauts to deep space.
The Thursday test was the third test firing of ATK's five-segment motor, and ATK and NASA officials say the design appears ready to move from demonstration tests to qualification motors, which could result in flight testing in a few years, Spaceflightnow.com reported.
"Given the great success we've had on these three tests, I think we're close to calling the design good," Charlie Precourt of ATK space launch systems said.
Initially designed to be the first stage of the canceled Ares 1 rocket, the motor has been repurposed as a strap-on booster for NASA's Space Launch System, a heavy-lift vehicle intended to take 130 tons to low Earth orbit as a first step toward manned missions to asteroids and Mars.
ATK is also pushing the booster as the first stage of its proposed commercial Liberty rocket it says could one day take astronaut crews into orbit.
