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Challenger: The disaster five people saw coming Forty years ago, the Challenger space shuttle disintegrated just after lift-off, killing its crew and changing the history of spaceflight. A small team of engineers tried to prevent the tragedy — but they were overruled. January 28, 1986 was an unusually crisp winter morning at Cape Canaveral in Florida. When the sun rose at 7:12am, the air temperature was about -5 degrees Celsius. Icicles hung from parts of the launch pad as preparations were made to send the Challenger space shuttle into orbit. Thousands of spectators were gathering along nearby roads and shorelines....

ATK PROVIDES MISSION CRITICAL COMPONENTS TO BE ASSEMBLED ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION MINNEAPOLIS, June 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliant Techsystems' (NYSE: ATK - News) reusable solid rocket motors (RSRM) performed flawlessly today, providing more than six million pounds of thrust as NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis launched into orbit to begin a 11-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to continue installation of two additional solar panels. During the STS-117 mission the crew will install the second and third starboard truss segments (S3/S4) which include a third set of solar arrays. In addition, the astronauts will retract the P6-2B wing,...

Reuters Shares of Space Shuttle Contractors Fall Monday February 3, 10:43 am ET CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shares of space shuttle contractors Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - News), Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - News) and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE:ATK - News) fell on Monday, the first trading day after the Columbia shuttle disaster. ADVERTISEMENTAlliant, which builds the solid rocket boosters for the shuttle, tumbled nearly 12 percent, its biggest one-day point loss since its October 1990 debut on the New York Stock Exchange and its biggest percentage loss since January 1993. Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded Alliant stock to "neutral" from "outperform."...