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Dynetics kicks off project to build Alabama rocket test facility
DECATUR, Alabama - Huntsville-based
Dynetics Inc. today officially launched a project to build a three-building complex in Alabama to support the development and testing of large rocket components.
Leaders of Dynetics joined state and local officials at a groundbreaking ceremony this morning at 60 Booster Boulevard in Decatur, near the sprawling
United Launch Alliance (ULA) factory where Atlas V and Delta IV rockets are assembled.
Earlier this year, Dynetics won a
NASA contract valued at $221 million to manage the development and assembly of a critical component for the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket that could one day take man to Mars. Dynetics is also involved in other aspects of the SLS project.
It's a cone 30 feet tall made of space age alloy. At the bottom, it's a little over 27 feet wide. At the top, just over 16 feet wide. And it's the biggest piece of space hardware ever built at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
For all that, it's seeing how small the cone is on a scale model of the Space Launch System it is part of that makes the size of SLS begin to seem real. It is going to be huge.
NASA, Marshall and prime contractor Teledyne Brown Engineering teamed up on the cone officially called the launch vehicle stage adapter. They invited the media inside Marshall's National Center for Advanced Manufacturing Tuesday to see the finished article.
As much as 70 percent of construction firms surveyed in Alabama this summer say they struggle to fill hourly craft positions, according to the Associated General Contractors of America and Autodesk.
And those numbers are consistent with a national survey which suggests that construction labor shortages could significantly hamper economic growth.
The survey, conducted in July and early August, contacted 20 different construction firms in Alabama as part of a national sweep of more than 1,600 firms. Across the U.S., 70 percent said they also have difficulty filling hourly craft positions, which was the same percentage across the South.