Thiokol

File:Trident II missile image.jpg

A Trident II (D-5) FBM fires its Thiokol solid rocket mainstage.

Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Company, Morton-Thiokol Inc., Cordant Technologies Inc., Thiokol Propulsion, ATK Thiokol; currently ATK Launch Systems Group) is a U.S. corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur (theio) and glue (kolla), an allusion to the company's initial product.

The Thiokol Chemical Company was founded in 1929. Its initial business was a range of synthetic rubber and polymer sealants, and Thiokol was a major supplier of liquid polymer sealants during World War II. When scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered Thiokol's polymers made ideal rocket fuels, Thiokol moved into the new field, opening laboratories at Elkton, Maryland, and later production facilities at Elkton and at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville produced the XM33 Pollux, TX-18 Falcon, and TX-135 Nike-Zeus systems. It closed in 1996. In the mid 1950s the company bought extensive land in Utah for a rocket test range, and continues to have major operations in the state, at Magna and Promontory, Utah (home of the Space Shuttle's SRB), and its current headquarters at Brigham City. As of 2005, the company employs over 4,000 people worldwide and records annual sales of around US$840 million.

Company history

• 1929: Thiokol Chemical Company founded.
• 1949: Thiokol produce the TX-18 Falcon missile, the world's first solid-fueled missile system.
• 1957: In anticipation of the forthcoming Minuteman contract, the company builds its plant at Brigham City, Utah.
• 1957: Thiokol Huntsville builds XM33 Pollux missile
• 1958: Merger with Reaction Motors Inc. (RMI), makers of liquid propellant rocket motor systems.
• 1958: Thiokol awarded contract to build the TU-122 rocket motor for the first stage of the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM system.
• 1959: Thiokol Huntsville produces CASTOR strap-on booster rocket, used on the Atlas rocket.
• 1974: Thiokol wins the contract to build the solid rocket booster (SRB) for the Space Shuttle
• 1978: The company sells its ski lift division to Doppelmayr CTEC and its snow equipment division to Logan Manufacturing Company (LMC), owned by John DeLorean.
• 1980: Acquires Carlisle Chemical Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.
• 1982: Thiokol merges with Morton-Norwich products (owners of the Morton Salt concern, the Simoniz automotive products brand, and various chemical concerns). The merged company is called Morton Thiokol Incorporated (MTI).
• 1986: An O-ring fault in an MTI SRB destroys Challenger just after launch
• 1989: Morton Thiokol splits, with most of the chemical concern going with Morton. The propulsion systems division becomes Thiokol Inc.
• 1998: Thiokol changes name to Cordant Technologies.
• 1998: Thiokol branded polymer products purchased by PolySpec L.P., a Houston based manufacturer of Industrial Coatings, Marine Decking, and Subsea Insulation products.
• 2000: Thiokol merges with two divisions of Alcoa and with Howmet Castings and Huck Fasteners to become AIC Group (Alcoa Industrial Components).
• 2001: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) Inc. (a company formed when Honeywell spun off its defense division) spends $2.9 billion buying Thiokol and related businesses from AIC/Alcoa. ATK built the third stage of the Trident missile and had earlier bought Hercules Aerospace Co., builder of the second stage. With the purchase of Thiokol, who make the missile's first stage, ATK controls the lion's share of the U.S. solid-rocket market.
• 2005, Thiokol wins the contract to produce the Ares I launch vehicle (first stage for NASA's Project Constellation).
• 2006, ATK-Thiokol renamed ATK Launch Systems Group.

Products

File:Jfader pathfinder bags.jpg

Thiokol gas generators were used in the airbags on Mars Pathfinder. The top photo shows a complete airbag assembly under test, the bottom shows the three titanium Thiokol gas generators used to inflate the airbags.

Products made by the aerospace divisions of RMI and Thiokol include motors used in Subroc, the Pershing missile, the Peacekeeper missile, Poseidon missile, Minuteman missile, and the Trident I and Trident II missiles. Thiokol produces powerplants for numerous U.S. military missile systems, including AIM-9 Sidewinder, AGM-88 HARM, AGM-65 Maverick, AGM-69 SRAM, and AIR-2 Genie.

File:63-601-243ci4sd.jpg

Model 601 USAF Thiokol Snowcat

Thiokol also produces a variety of liquid and solid rocket motors for the NASA, including deorbit motors for the Mercury and Gemini programs, rocket stages and separation rocket motors for the Apollo program, motors for the Pioneer, Surveyor, Viking, Voyager, and Magellan missions, updated CASTOR boosters for the Delta rocket, and the Space Shuttle SRB. Reaction Motors powerplants propelled the X-1 and X-15, and later Thiokol technologies were also used in the private Tier One manned spaceplane. On 1 March 2006, NASA announced Thiokol will be the prime contractor for the new Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), to be known as Ares I, which will put the Orion spacecraft (formerly known as the "Crew Exploration Vehicle") into low earth orbit, along with the five-segment SRBs for the heavy-lift Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV), known as Ares V.

Thiokol pioneered the short-burn rocket motors used in aircraft ejector seats. The company also produced a number of the earliest practical airbag systems, building the high-speed sodium azide exothermic gas generators used to inflate the bags. Thiokol bags were first used in U.S. military aircraft, before being adapted to space exploration (Mars Pathfinder bounced down on Mars on Thiokol products) and automotive airbags. Thiokol's generators form the core of more than 60% of airbags sold worldwide, in everything from the Lincoln Town Car to the Mazda Miata.

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

The Space Shuttle Challenger accident occurred at 11:39 EST on the morning of 28 January 1986, when STS-51L Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into the flight

Later in 1986, the Rogers Commission and the United States House Committee on Science found the Challenger accident was caused by a failure in the Morton-Thiokol-made O-rings sealing a joint on the right SRB, which allowed pressurized hot gases and eventually flame to "blow by" the O-ring and make contact with the adjacent external tank, causing structural failure. The failure of the Viton O-rings was attributed to a faulty design, whose performance could be too easily compromised by factors including the low temperature on the day of launch. Thiokol engineers informed NASA of this problem and recommended a delay of the launch until the temperature was warmer, but because the launch had already been delayed by several days, NASA decided to go ahead.

External links

• ATK Launch Systems Group homepage
• History of Reaction Motors Inc.
• History of Thiokol
• Photographs of Thiokol snowcat and snow-grooming equipment
• Thiokol's connection to Snowcats and John DeLorean

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thiokol".