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PROMONTORY, Utah (AP) -- The company that makes booster rockets for the space shuttle says it will conduct a final test firing in northern Utah later this month.
ATK Space Systems says the Feb. 25 ground test at Promontory signals the end of the space shuttle program.
NASA was supposed to replace the space shuttle with a new spaceship and launcher for travel to the moon and beyond.
President Barack Obama, however, has proposed scrapping the new program for something different, leaving NASA's longtime contractor in Utah with an uncertain future.
Clearfield-based ATK Space Systems has laid off 970 workers in Utah since October, citing the phase-out of the space shuttle and the Minuteman III ballistic missile programs.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
