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MUSIC

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This project has been a real

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fun effort in trying to take a

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heritage booster that had many

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many years  of reliability and

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great performance and evolve it

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into something bigger and better

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When we first under took the

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design and qualification for the

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new booster, part of the mission

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was to make the  booster more

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affordable and more modernÖand

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of course it had to be

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completely redesigned for a new

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mission. Itís a larger booster

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and the mission profile is

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sufficiently different to where

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pretty much everything on the

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inside of the booster is

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different.  There are well over

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a thousand individual processes.

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Working with our customer we

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were able to identify several

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hundred areas of improvement.

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Weíve got totally new avionics

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on this vehicle versus what we

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had on Shuttle.  Itís state of

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the art. Weíve taken that

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avionics and actually tested it

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in development units in a full

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flight configurationÖ and weíre

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about to enter some

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qualification testing with that

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system.  But in this particular

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test we will actually control

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the thrust vector control

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system with the flight avionics.

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The old Shuttle program

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utilized a rubber insulation

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between the case segment and

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the propellant that contained

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asbestos, and so we selected a

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fiber called PPI which is used

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widely in the fire protection

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industryÖdeveloped a new rubber

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formulation and ended up with a

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rubber thatís actually higher

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performing than the previous

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material which allowed us to

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remove a fair amount of

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insulation and replace it with

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fuel and get a little bit more

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performance out of it. So not

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only is it environmentally

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friendly itís a higher

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performing material and a

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higher performing rocket.

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Structurally weíve had to make

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some changes. The aft attach

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point of this booster, in order

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to accommodate the structural

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configuration of the SLS vehicle,

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has been moved several feet aft.

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Actually, this QM-1 test will

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be the first test, in a static

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configuration, that weíve done

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with that actual SLS attach

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point in place. We had to

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design a new core, and a new

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propellant grain inside the

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fuel thatís inside the rocket.

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Part of the required us to

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design and manufacture all new

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tooling that forms the inside

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of the motor. We had to

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redesign our nozzle because we

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have a different performance,

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different things going on

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inside the motorÖand so a large

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portion of the nozzle was

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redesigned. Also, weíve had a

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major, major effort over the

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last two years to try to

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improve the affordability of

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this vehicle, because the

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intent was not only to have a

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higher performing vehicle but

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to have one that actually cost

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less. And we believe weíve

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achieved that and this test of