2013 Issue

30 Aerospace history is admittedly filled with letdowns as programs are cut, and the re- cent cancellation of NASA’s Constellation and the threat of defense budget cuts are no exemption. However, a few areas serve to be a spring of hope for Utah. For civil aviation, the NextGen Air Transportation Systemwill revolutionalize air traffic control management at the Salt Lake City Interna- tional Airport. For the military, the Falcon Hill project at Hill AFB has been dubbed as priceless armor in the battle against de- fense cuts. In space, the local work done at ATK for the James Webb Space Telescope will one day come to fruition when the Hubble is taken out of service. Whether the programs are civil or military, air or space, AIAA-Utah members all over the state are strengthening Utah’s aerospace presence. ATK, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, the Space Dynamics Laboratory, and Hill AFB are only a few of the many institutions here that will keep us flying high, and as long as our universities continue to produce the nation’s best and brightest, we will always have innovations to prove that the sky is NOT the limit. OUT OF THE PAST | continued from page 29 The world’s largest solid rocket motor ignites in Promontory in September 2011. Image credit: ATK. NASA’s Genesis spacecraft landed less successfully at UTTR in September 2004. The primary science data was still recoverable. Image credit: USAF 388th Range Sqd NASA’s Stardust sample return capsule successfully landed at UTTR in January 2006. Image credit: NASA