NASA Seeks Plans for New Shuttle Booster

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has invited proposals from industry for a $1.2-billion project to design, develop and test the next generation of booster rockets for the space shuttle.

Firms have 60 days to submit their proposals.

The first of the new rockets are to be placed into service in 1994, to be phased in over a three-year period. The contract award is expected early next year.

A total of $1 billion is for design and developing the boosters and delivering six flight sets. An additional $200 million to $300 million is for construction of facilities on government-owned sites at Yellow Creek, Miss., and NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Five firms had study contracts for design and definition studies for the rockets. One, Morton Thiokol Inc., said it will not compete for the contract. Thiokol, which makes all current shuttle boosters, will abandon that field when it delivers the last of the redesigned rockets in the mid-1990s.

The other firms are Aerojet Solid Propulsion Co., Sacramento; Atlantic Research Corp., Alexandria, Va.; Hercules Aerospace Co., Salt Lake City, and United Technologies chemical systems division, San Jose.