PROMONTORY, Box Elder County — Although many of the scores of watchers from NASA, the media and ATK Launch Systems had witnessed booster motor static firings in the past, Thursday's countdown brought a breathless silence from the spectators.

A mile away from the VIP viewing area lay the solid-fuel booster — identical to each of the two awaiting a space shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral, Fla. From that distance, the booster looked like a white pipe on the ground. Immediately below a hillside from the viewing area, a herd of black Angus cattle chewed the sparse grass.

"T-minus 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, fire," a voice rang from a nearby loudspeaker. Flame flashed from the pipe and flew along the desert, kicking up dust and smoke. "Plus five," the voice added.

Six seconds after ignition, a solid wall of sound hit the viewing area. Two minutes into the test, as planned, the flame drew back and died. The crowd applauded and whistled. "T-plus 145 seconds," said the loudspeaker voice, as the towering clouds of smoke began to dissipate.

"Fantastic," said Jody A. Singer, NASA's manager of the reusable solid-rocket booster program, who is stationed at Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala. "It always takes your breath away. After 123 seconds, you learn to breathe."

When the blast occurred, the cattle had run away. The motor generated an average of 2.6 million pounds of thrust throughout the test, according to ATK. This firing was to check on 58 parameters, including a new type of insulation.

Before, the insulation had to be warmed if temperatures at the launch pad dropped below 70 degrees. But now, said astronaut Barry E. "Butch" Wilmore, if the test proves it can be done, the motor could be safe at about 30 degrees.

"You don't have to have heaters," if that happens, he said in an interview before the firing. "You throw the heaters off and all the heating elements, it's less weight, which is more payload to orbit, which is important."

These tests are part of the drive to return to the moon, and eventually land astronauts on Mars. The motor fired on Thursday, dubbed FSM-14, is a four-segment model, the same kind that the shuttle uses.

Doug White, vice president for test and research services for ATK, said the purpose of the tests is to verify and validate the engineering design and the manufacturing process.

White said he was excited about the work: "Who wouldn't be, to be involved in the next chapter of manned spaceflight?"

---

E-mail: bau@desnews.com