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| Born in 1926 as a result of a serendipitous
laboratory experiment that produced the world's first synthetic rubber,
the company was formally created as the Thiokol Chemical Corporation in
1929. The company name (Thiokol) refers to that discovery and stems from
the Greek words for sulfur and glue. Its liquid polymer rubber was used
extensively during the war years as an indestructible sealant for fuel
tanks, gun turrets, and seams of all kinds. Liquid polymer sealants were
the company's major products for years, but the corporate future changed
forever when scientists at Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered
that the polymer made the best (at that time) solid propellant fuel binder
known to man. |
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What follows is a short version of Thiokol's more than 50 years experience in the aerospace industry. No serious history of aerospace and rocket propulsion can overlook Thiokol's contributions. | |
| Small-scale rocket operations were begun at
Elkton, Maryland, in 1948 and by1949, facilities were opened at the Army's
Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Successes with ever-larger solid
propellant motors led the company in 1956 to take a giant gamble: without
a contract in hand, the company bought acreage in Northern Utah just seven
miles from where the Central and Union Pacific railroads drove the Golden
Spike in 1869. A $3 million plant was soon developed to manufacture the
huge rocket motors foreseen for the future. The gamble paid off in 1958
with the award of the contract to build the first stage for the Air Force's
revolutionary Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). |
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| Project Farside in 1957 marked Thiokol's introduction
to the space race. Five Recruit motors, developed in Huntsville and produced
in Elkton, powered the probe from its balloon launch into deep space.
The Elkton Division manufactured the critical deorbit motors for the Mercury
and Gemini manned space programs, staging and separation motors for Apollo
lunar missions, and a variety of motors for the Pioneer, Surveyor, Viking,
Voyager, |
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| Magellan, and other unmanned programs. Today
the division manufactures over 90 percent of the world's satellite booster
motors. Ranging in size from 5 to 92 inches in diameter, these high-energy
STAR™ motors are used to boost satellites and other payloads from low
earth orbits to their final orbits or interplanetary trajectories. Also in 1958, Thiokol merged with Reaction Motors, Inc. (RMI). RMI was the first enterprise devoted to the commercialization of the rocket engine. Some of RMI's major contracts were to produce liquid fuel engines for such aircraft as the Bell Aircraft Corporation X-l (the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound), the Douglas D-558-1 No. 2 Skyrocket (the first aircraft to exceed twice the speed of sound) and the record-breaking North American Aviation X-15, a hypersonic rocket powered airplane. |
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| The Huntsville Division's contribution to space
began in 1959 with the development first flight of the CASTOR® I on NASA's
Little Joe vehicle. The CASTOR motor series has served as stages for Scout
and strap-on boosters for the Delta space launcher for three decades.
In fact, CASTOR has the longest and best reliability record of any solid
rocket booster ever built. |
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Continued success with Minuteman and other solid propellant rocket
programs laid the groundwork for research programs for giant solid rocket
motors. The Peacekeeper missile and Space Shuttle booster motor programs
were eventual products of that research. At the same time, Thiokol entered
into a unique joint venture to develop the Navy's Poseidon submarine-launched
missile. That joint venture continued successfully through the Trident
I and Trident II programs. |
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Thiokol has long been involved in the development and production of both tactical and strategic missiles. The Gorgon was the first U.S liquid rocket powered missile, produced by RMI in 1944, and the Falcon was the first solid rocket missile, produced by Thiokol in 1949. Some of these missile systems such as the Falcon, Subroc and Pershing served reliably for decades. | |
| With a strong experience base in energetic
materials, production of ordnance items was a logical step. Thiokol began
operating the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant in Marshall, Texas, in 1952.
In 1975 we added a contract to operate the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant,
located near Shreveport, Louisiana (both |
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ordinance plants closed in the 1990s). Meanwhile, the company used its expertise in propellants to develop castable illuminating flares at its Utah facilities and is today the world's largest supplier of such devices for both U.S. and foreign markets. Diversification of the specialty chemicals business continued and eventually
the company's product line included a broad family of liquid polymers
and products as varied as brake shoes, tracked snow vehicles, potato
harvesters and no-discharge waste treatment systems. These products
are no longer manufactured by Thiokol. A completely accurate list of
all Thiokol produced rocket motors is difficult to assemble. To expand
such a list to include all Thiokol products past and present is impractical,
bordering on impossible. We'll focus on rocket motors and ordnance products. |
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| One of the largest changes in the company's
history came in 1982 when the Morton Norwich company merged with Thiokol
to become Morton Thiokol, Inc. Although it was primarily Thiokol's specialty
chemicals and commercial products that prompted the merger, the aerospace
business represented an extremely healthy diversification option. The |
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marriage of specialty chemicals, solid propulsion, and salt was a good one for nearly a decade. In 1989 the company was split once again. Morton International was assigned all of the commercial businesses including specialty chemicals, salt, and the aerospace-developed automobile occupant air bag restraint system. Thiokol Corporation retained all of the government programs. In 1998, we changed our corporate name from Thiokol Corporation to
Cordant Technologies Inc. Thiokol Propulsion is the name under which
we manufacture and market our solid rocket propulsion systems and advanced
composite materials. Huck Fasteners and Howmet Castings are the other
two businesses of Cordant Technologies. |
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In 2000, Cordant Technologies became part of the newly formed Alcoa Industrial Components (AIC) Group. AIC is focused on high-performance, highly engineered products for aerospace, automotive, industrial gas turbine and other applications. The Group combines the manufacturing and technical strengths of Alcoa Automotive and Alcoa Wheel and Forged Products with that of Howmet Castings, Huck Fasteners and Thiokol Propulsion. Our reputation, however, remains as an enterprise renowned for superior technological expertise, strategic diversification and relentless quality improvements in product, service and operational performance. .In 2001, ATK strengthened its presence in propulsion and composite structures with the acquisition of Thiokol Propulsion from Alcoa, Inc. |
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