[X] My Assistant

[Airbag]

On a recent trip to Utah we were driving from Salt Lake City to Promontory Summit (where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads met in 1869 when laying tracks for the first transcontinental railroad) when we saw a sign that said "Rocket Exhibit". Now the landscape near Promontory is about as bleak and desolate as you can imagine, with undulating hills, salt covered low areas and not a tree in sight, so we were surprised to see a sign for just about anything at all out there:



But soon we started to see some buildings here and there (all very spread out), with what appeared to be escape chutes (?!) out of their sides:



Then it dawned on me...this was Morton Thiokol, now known as ATK! And sure enough we then saw this very
employee-motivating sign to confirm that:



The (free) rocket exhibit itself was near the main buildings; quite an impressive collection of rockets and (solid fuel) rocket motors. In the background is an empty (!) full-size Shuttle SRB; in the left foreground is just one SRB segment (specifically, the aft segment) with a (grey) STAR 30BP apogee motor just to the right of it to show the difference in sizes. Standing tall in the center of the display are Minuteman and Trident C-4 missiles:






This is the clevis side of the infamous SRB "field joint"; really much smaller than I imagined it to be and quite
delicate looking (as compared to the overall scale and size of the full SRB). You can see the grooves where the "O" rings fit in:



The business end of the SRB:



If you have ever wondered what a Minuteman first stage looks like inside, this (inert!) propellant grain has the characteristic star shaped cutouts to control the rate of burn; the pebbles presumably are no doubt not original issue:



I can't quite remember what this one is, but I think it is a Minuteman first stage too:




Also on display were various other much smaller rocket motors made by Morton Thiokol:



And I'll finish with a puzzle: who knows what this strange looking contraption is? I'll post the answer (or confirmation of a successful response) in a couple of weeks or so!



Airbag

[tty]

[Clears throat discreetly] Polaris was not an ICBM. It was launched with a live nuclear warhead though, which no US ICBM ever was.

[nprev]

[Clears throat discreetly] Polaris was not an ICBM. It was launched with a live nuclear warhead though, which no US ICBM ever was.

Whups...my bad. SLBM is probably the most proper term.