Nevada senators supporting Utah rocket maker

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators have jumped into a debate over rocket motors to outer space, pressing NASA and the White House in support of a Utah company looking to preserve a role in human spaceflight.

The Obama administration's decisions could mean billions of dollars in contracts for Alliant Techsystems, of Magna, Utah. The company has a long history of developing the giant solid-fuel booster rockets that pushed the space shuttle into the atmosphere through 135 missions.

The issue also has ramifications for Nevada. American Pacific Corp., headquartered in Las Vegas, produces ammonium perchlorate, a key rocket fuel ingredient, and the Utah company is a significant customer.

The senators are urging the Obama administration to stick with existing solid rocket motor technology as it moves forward on a new space launch system as a follow-up to the shuttle program, which is ending.

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., joined Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, both of Idaho, in a letter pressing the space agency and the White House budget office to issue overdue final designs and purchasing plans for the launch program.

The booster rockets could mean more than 1,000 jobs for wherever the components would be built and tested.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both D-Calif., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., have advocated opening competition for the boosters, saying billions of dollars could be saved. A partnership of Sacramento, Calif.-based Aerojet and Teledyne Brown Engineering, of Huntsville, Ala., is developing a liquid-fuel booster as an entry for bidding.

And a newly formed group called "Tea Party in Space," has protested provisions in a NASA authorization bill Congress passed last year that directed the agency to use existing technology and contracts if practical to build the launch system and the Apollolike cab for astronauts that would sit atop it.

The group called it a "hidden earmark" for the Utah company, which had worked on the Constellation program canceled by President Barack Obama.

Constellation aimed to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, but the White House said it was "overbudget, behind schedule and lacking in innovation."

Congress has told NASA to build a heavy lift rocket and cab that could send crews to outer space by 2016. Hatch and the senators from neighboring states said the legal requirements for the space launch system "can only be realistically met through the use of solid rocket motors."

Those senators said they welcomed competition for the boosters after initial flight testing is completed, which NASA officials believe will not be until the end of the decade at least. They also said they would oppose any use of federal money to advance liquid-fuel boosters.

"During this period of financial austerity, it is irresponsible to spend funds on the development of a new system, such as an enhanced liquid engine, to accompany what is already possible through existing technology, specifically solid rocket motors," they said.

Reid has gotten involved as a nod to American Pacific Corp., which his spokesman said employs 80 Nevadans on the project.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.