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PROMONTORY -- There was thunder in Northern Utah Thursday, as the last test firing of a space shuttle rocket took place near Promontory.
It's a spectacle that's taken place 52 times in Northern Utah over the last 33 years. But now it's all over, barring a last minute rescue of the space shuttle program in Congress.
The last blast drew thousands of spectators just before noon.
More than a million pounds of rocket fuel burned in two minutes and three seconds. The shuttle booster was anchored to the ground, otherwise it would have wound up in Nevada.
ATK has periodically tested the motors here in Utah since the birth of the space shuttle program in 1977. Now, only four launches are left in Florida, so the tests will come to an end.
A veteran astronaut who is now a vice president for ATK was on hand for Thursday's test. We spoke to him just before the launch.
"Throughout my flying career, I've retired several airplanes. Now I'm going to get to retire a spacecraft, it looks like," said Jim Halsell. "And sure, a little piece of you goes to the bone yard when the airplane or the spacecraft that you were privileged to fly goes to the boney ard. So there are some mixed emotions here, certainly."
"It's also a, it's a mission complete. We're completing the mission we were set out to do, and we feel pretty good about that too" said Mat Bevill, deputy manager for Solid Rocket Motors at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
By show time, the fog lifted, promising a very good view.
"We're pretty excited. This is a great event here -- the last of an era," said Salt Lake City resident Zeb Fisk.
The blast drew a big crowd, maybe the biggest ever at ATK -- an estimated 5,000 people.
"It's exciting," said ATK employee Jared Taylor.
"First time I've come out here, so it's pretty cool. I'm excited," said Corinne resident Jessica Craner.
The river of fire was a mile and a half way, so it took the sound eight seconds to reach Maria Ambriz.
"Oh, it's so cool!" Ambriz said. "Oh! I'm shaking!"
It lasted, just the way it was supposed to, two minutes and three seconds.
"That's kind of bittersweet," said former ATK employee Thomas Moore. "It's the last shuttle test firing of the program; only four more launches. If people don't write their congressman, there's gonna be a lot of jobs lost."
There is plenty of controversy about the future of the space program, and a very slim chance the shuttle program will be revived.
Clearfield-based ATK Space Systems has laid off 970 workers in Utah since in October, citing the phase-out of the space shuttle and the Minuteman III ballistic missile programs.
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Story compiled with contributions from John Hollenhorst and The Associated Press.
