Photo Gallery: One Last Blast
Related article: Final firing for space shuttle solid rocket ground tests
Above: Flight Support Motor-17 (FSM-17) as it appeared prior to the test through a mid-morning layer of fog at ATK's test facility.
Above: The solid rocket motor measures more than 126 feet in length and 12 feet in diameter.
Above: FSM-17 was built from cases earlier launched on 38 shuttle missions and fired on eight prior static tests.
Above: Kent Rominger, former astronaut and ATK Space Systems Group's vice president for test and research operations.
Above: More than 500 Utah students were bussed in for the test and loudly counted down the final 10 seconds to ignition.
Above: At ignition, a fireball ejects from FSM-17 at Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound.
Above: It takes eight seconds for the thundrous roar to reach the closest spectators standing one and a half miles away.
Above: FSM-17 generated three million pounds of thrust, or the equivalent of 15 million horsepower.
Above: If the heat energy could be converted to electric power, FSM-17 produced enough to supply 43,500 homes for a day.
Above: FSM-17 fired for approximately two minutes and three seconds.
Above, below: FSM-17 as seen apprxoimately two hours after the firing.
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