NASA administration Daniel S. Goldin gave the go-ahead Tuesday for the Utah-based Thiokol Corp. to manufacture nozzles for the space shuttle at the Yellow Creek plant in northeast Mississippi.
NASA and Thiokol announced last December that the nozzles would be made at the Yellow Creek facility near Iuka, a site where NASA was at one time building a facility to manufacture new rocket engines for the shuttle.Congress cut off funding for the multibillion dollar advanced solid rocket motor plant last year.
Goldin said it will take about 21/2 years to completely convert the Iuka site to manufacture of the nozzles. He said Thiokol will spend about $88 million on the conversion.
Thiokol plans to move all of its nozzle operations to the Yellow Creek facility. Goldin said the relocation of nozzle manufacturing from Utah to Yellow Creek provides the opportunity to upgrade and consolidate the process.