Rocket Test In Northern Utah Goes Off Problem-free

MIKE STARK

PROMONTORY, Utah (AP) — The first test of NASA's powerful moon rocket went off without a problem Thursday as more than a million pounds of propellant ignited in a split second, sending a towering plume of sand and dust high into the Utah sky.

For more than two minutes, flames roared out the end of the 154-foot Ares I rocket, which was anchored horizontally to the ground on a hill above the Great Salt Lake.

"That was something, wasn't it?" said a grinning Charlie Precourt, a former shuttle astronaut and vice president of Alliant Techsystems Inc.'s space launch systems.

More than 4,000 people witnessed the test and scores of others watched it on live television.

The rocket, capable of producing 3.6 million pounds of thrust, is intended as a more powerful alternative to the two solid rocket boosters used to launch the space shuttle. Precourt called it "the most powerful rocket on the planet."

Thursday's test was the second attempt in two weeks after a similar one was scrubbed Aug. 27 because of problems with a computer component on the ground test system.