Apr 18 1988
From The Space Library
NASA submitted to the Congress its acquisition plan for the Space Shuttle Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM). The plan contained NASA's strategy for a full and open competition to introduce an ASRM into the Shuttle system. NASA contended that a new booster design would result in substantive improvements in flight safety, reliability, and performance over the current SRMs produced by contractor Morton Thiokol, Inc.
The ASRM design considered by NASA would be an advanced version of the segmented boosters currently in use in the Shuttle program. The new boosters would have a more reliable field joint design and would be more powerful than the current SRMs, providing for a 12,000-pound increase in the Shuttle's payload capacity. Additionally, the ASRMs would preclude the necessity for throttling the Space Shuttle's main engines during the period of maximum dynamic pressure, thereby reducing or eliminating about 175 "criticality 1/lr" failure modes for the Shuttle system.
An important aspect of NASA's ASRM acquisition plan was the proposal that the boosters be developed in a new Government-owned contractor operated (GOCO) facility and that the contract be subjected to competitive bidding. In response to protests by Morton Thiokol and the Utah congressional delegation, led by Senator Jake Gam, NASA altered the proposal to include the possibility of building the ASRM in a currently existing private facility. The overall cost to develop the ASRM was estimated at just under $1 billion, including modem tooling and equipment, plus $200-$300 million for construction of facilities. Under the current production schedule, the first ASRMs would be flight certified by 1993. Thiokol announced it would bid aggressively to build the ASRM at its existing facilities in Utah. (NASA Release 88-54; UPI, Apr 18/88; AP, Apr 19/88; USA Today, Apr 19/88; W Times, Apr 19/88; NY Times, Apr 20/88; W Post, Apr 20/88; WSJ, Apr 20/88; )
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