By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTShipping rocket parts can be akin to rocket science when one considers their value, sheer size, awkwardness of handling, and potential explosive nature. One only has to be reminded of the train wreck in Alabama in 2007 that dumped one space shuttle booster component into a muddy bog and sent six NASA crew members accompanying the shipment to the hospital to realize the danger involved when transporting such enormous items. Planning is Paramount In the case of the shipment involved in the 2007 train accident, the rocket components were headed for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and were scheduled for use on shuttle Discovery’s STS-120 mission in October 2007 and shuttle Atlantis’s STS-122 mission in December 2007. NASA had a policy of sourcing rocket components from across the country, thereby creating a complicated and expensive logistics network that warranted utilizing rail service. Obviously, the shipment went terribly amuck. The booster rocket components, were manufactured by ATK Launch Systems in Brigham City, Utah, were en route to Florida from Utah. Makint the shipment particularly dangerous was the fact each component was packed with a mixture of powdered aluminum and ammonium perchlorate, which was then cured with a synthetic rubber to the consistency of a hard eraser. When ignited, each complete rocket (consisting of four individual segments) was capable of generating over 2.6 million pounds of thrust. At a media briefing following the accident, ATK officials said that given the design of the rocket components, there was no chance that they would explode, but under the right conditions, they would “burn, and burn very aggressively.” There’s other examples shipments of rocket boosters gone awry, including the 1988 accident in which three space-shuttle booster-rocket segments were also involved in a train accident during their shipment en route to the Kennedy Space Center. Again, no one can underestimate the importance of careful transport planning. Industry observers contend that while such accidents may say more about the condition of the railroad tracks than the preparation and handling of the rocket parts, shipping such oversized project cargo requires care and consideration for every aspect of the move along the way. Taurus® Rocket Booster Enter the recent shipment of two of six to 12 first-stage core structures for the Taurus® II rocket that entered the United States from overseas via the Port of Wilmington, Delaware. That rocket is being developed by Dulles, VA-based Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of the world’s leading space technology companies. Stevedores at the Port of Wilmington are experienced at handling unusual shipments of project cargo. In the past few years, the Port has handled such cargoes including parts for power generating plants, wind turbine blades, large generators, construction equipment, and ship building materials. In the case of Taurus® II rocket, this shipment was coming from the Ukraine.As Orbital has little experience with large liquid stages and LOX propellant, some of the Taurus II first stage work was contracted to Yuzhnove SDO, a designer of rockets and satellites in Dnipropetrovsk, the Ukraine. The Taurus® II rocket is the booster for Cygnus spacecraft, an unmanned resupply spacecraft also being developed by Orbital as well as Thales Alenia Space as part of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) project. It is designed to transport supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) after the retirement of the Space Shuttle. NASA retired its 30-year Space Shuttle program in July, so the agency is banking on commercial spaceships like the Cygnus to deliver American cargo to the space station. “Our first COTS demonstration flight will carry a Cygnus, which will be launched into orbit and rendezvous and berth with the space station,” says Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski. “Actual operational cargo delivery missions will commence abou