ATK Technologies Support Titan IVB Launch

ATK Technologies Support Titan IVB Launch

Powerful Booster Makes its Last East Coast Launch

Minneapolis, May 2, 2005 - Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) propulsion and
composite technologies supported the recent launch of a Lockheed Martin
Titan IVB rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. that
successfully placed a classified payload for the U.S. National
Reconnaissance Office into orbit.

Two ATK Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade (SRMU) boosters provided more than 3.4
million pounds of thrust during the first two minutes of the Titan IVB
launch. Each booster measures 112 feet in length and 10.5 feet in diameter,
and weighs over 770,000 pounds. The SRMU boosters have been flying on Titan
IVB missions since February 1997.

Additional ATK solid rocket motors were used in booster and stage
separation. Staging rockets safely moved the spent SRMU boosters away from
the launch vehicle.
After the liquid second-stage engine completed its burn, four ATK START 5CB
retrorockets jettisoned the spent second stage from the vehicle.

This was the last Titan IV to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, Fla. The final Titan IV of the program will fly from Vandenberg Air
Force Base, Calif., later this summer.

Built by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), the Titan IVB is capable of boosting
up to 47,800 pounds into low-Earth orbit or more than 12,700 pounds into
geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth.
ATK is a $2.4 billion advanced weapon and space systems company employing
approximately 14,000 people in 23 states. News and information can be found
on the Internet at www.atk.com.

--
--------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info