Honestly, one of the best days ever.

We made the 100 mile trek up to Promontory yesterday to attend the Orbital ATK family day.  There were fire trucks, food, and the SLS 5 segment solid rocket booster.  It was incredible!

Thumbs up sitting in the wheel of the massive case transporter.

Redundant cabs, hydraulics, and starring systems at both ends.

An empty case in the cradle.

Some of the stats.

Notice the exhaust is fully shielded including the top?  One doesn't need any sparks flying about with a loaded case on board!

Road legal in Utah!

Orbital ATK has their own fire department and ambulance.  Skyler got a private tour of the ambulance.

Fire truck.  You can tell he was enjoying this.

Private fire truck tour.

Haz mat stuff everywhere.  Nearly every substance and building at the facility can kill.

The cleanest trucks I've ever seen!

Back to the transporter.

Massive!

Looking South across the wind swept desert.  We were North of The Great Salt Lake.

A better pic of the transporter.

The underground bunker where they control and fire the motors.

We got to play "test" including working headsets.  Notice in front of Skyler the red abort knob?  There was also the key switch that actually fires the motor.

The loaded 5 segment motor!!!!!!!!!

The test fixture was massive.  These are the hold downs so the motor doesn't just flop around upon ignition.

The aft end.  They hadn't installed the nozzle on this motor.

The blast zone!

They put sand down behind the nozzle on the concrete to protect it.  That sand melts and turns to glass from the heat!  (I picked up a couple of pieces of the glass to take home!)

The hydraulics that gimbal the nozzle.   You can see the hydrazine powered turbines that run the hydraulic pumps.

Hydrazine tanks are the silver balls, turbine exhaust are the 2 pipes going out the side.

Looking down the South side of the motor.

Massive cradles that hold the motor.

Closeup of the auxiliary systems.  Better pic of the exhaust pipes.

Forward end that's anchored to the test stand.

Again, everything is huge.

This building is on rails!

That concrete is solid and goes down 10 feet underground!

Interior of the building on rails with all the lifting fixtures.

Looking aft to the East end of the motor.

The blasted mountain.

Giant 200 ton crane on rails!

Enormous!

We then drove the 2 miles to the "rocket garden" at the main offices.  This is looking at a Shuttle era booster nozzle.

Lots-O-rockets.

Minuteman.

Shuttle booster.

What the cast propellant looks like.  This is an inert motor from Minuteman.

Propellant mixing and casting building.  Notice the evacuation slides!

What the motor test stand looks like from the road.  This is where we can view the test.  Mommy will get to see it from the VIP area!

The case loading building located near Corrine.  That massive transporter carries the loaded segments the 10 miles East of the plant where they're then loaded on the pictured rail cars.  Next stop, NASA in Florida!