NASA's next moon rocket, the Ares I, is scheduled to get its first launch pad test next month in Florida. But there are unanswered questions still hanging in the fall air regarding any U.S. space program that includes a future with the Utah-built Ares I rocket motor.
The answers to those questions could mean the survivability of at least 700 Utah jobs for ATK Space Systems, a company with three Utah locations.
The company is a division of Minnesota-based Alliant Techsystems Inc., and is the prime contractor for the Ares I, a first-stage, five-segment reusable solid rocket booster derived from the Space Shuttle Program's reusable solid- rocket motor, according to NASA.
The worst-case scenario for ATK, a potential loss of all the Ares jobs should the company lose federal support, is a picture being repeatedly painted by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, a member of the Armed Services Committee
"If they don't keep their commitment on Ares I through Ares V," said Bishop, "it could have a devastating impact on ATK, the largest private employer in Utah. That could be 1,000 to 4,000 jobs."
Earlier this year, President Obama appointed a special outside panel of experts to review NASA's future space plans, after money problems, delays and technical issues plagued some of the agency's projects, including the lunar mission.
The Ares I has been a centerpiece of NASA's $100 billion return-to-the-moon plans, first suggested by President George W. Bush in 2004.
The committee's preliminary summary, issued Sept. 8 and only 12 pages long, reported there wasn't enough money in the current budget to go to the moon. It also suggested the Ares I may not be the primary or even best option.
"We clearly present an alternative to building Ares I," MIT professor Ed Crawley, a member of the panel, told The Associated Press.
Congress held hearings earlier this month on the report, and numerous lawmakers went on record to join Bishop in support of the existing NASA plan.
ATK officials believe the panel was initially positive, believing it simply explored new ideas.
"They acknowledged the program of record was very viable," said Charley Precourt, ATK's space launch systems general manager. "The main issue is budget."
But the presidential panel, led by former Lockheed CEO Norman Augustine, still has a full report to release on its study of possible alternatives to projects under way at NASA.
As legislative details unfold, the space community waits to see if the panel's final report fleshes out its preliminary options and what Capitol Hill lawmakers, including the president, decide to do with the report's suggestions for NASA.
"There is broad spread recognition that those new ideas come with some risk," said Precourt, whose company has a Utah work force of 4,800 people and 700 dedicated to the Ares I program.
ATK's funding stream is under scrutiny in several areas, including some of the company's other defense products, as Congress debates how to allocate defense dollars.
The company already announced that 10 percent of its Utah work force would be laid off in October because of federal cuts and the end of the Minuteman III propulsion-replacement program.
Bishop is working to get support for federal dollars to keep part of the missile production up and running. The plan might save 120 missile- production jobs as Bishop argues that the U.S. needs to keep its production expertise able and ready.
Precourt and others believe the Utah moon rocket has a promising future.
"The viability of our product, the solid rocket booster, plays a dominant role in that mission," Precourt added.
The Ares I-X, as the test configuration is called in the mock missile mode, originally had a flight test targeted to launch on Halloween from Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida but could leave the ground earlier than planned.
But the Halloween scare for Utah's economy, as Bishop has argued, might come sooner as Congress and the administration debate the future of the lunar mission and defense spending.
Monday: Questions about the rocket's safety.
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