page_title: Thiokol
section_title: Company history
hierarchical_section_title: Thiokol / Company history
caption_attribution_description: English: United States Trident II (D-5) missile underwater launch.
context_page_description: Thiokol was an American corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur and glue, an allusion to the company's initial product, Thiokol polymer.
  The Thiokol Chemical Company was founded in 1929. Its initial business was a range of synthetic rubber and polymer sealants. Thiokol was a major supplier of liquid polymer sealants during World War II. When scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that Thiokol's polymers made ideal binders for solid rocket fuels, Thiokol moved into the new field, opening laboratories at Elkton, Maryland, and later production facilities at Elkton and at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville produced the XM33 Pollux, TX-18 Falcon, and TX-135 Nike-Zeus systems. It closed in 1996. In the mid-1950s the company bought extensive lands in Utah for its rocket test range. In 1986 it was found at fault for the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Thiokol continues to have major operations in the state, at Magna, Wasatch County, and Promontory, and its current headquarters at Brigham City.
context_section_description: 1926: Two chemists, Joseph C. Patrick and Nathan Mnookin, were trying to invent an inexpensive antifreeze. In the course of an experiment involving ethylene dichloride and sodium polysulfide, they created a gum whose outstanding characteristic was a terrible odor. The substance clogged a sink in the laboratory, and none of the solvents used to remove it were successful. Then the frustrated chemists realized that the resistance of the material to any kind of solvent was a useful property. They had invented a synthetic rubber, which they christened "Thiokol".
  1929: Bevis Longstreth, an executive at a salt company, founds the Thiokol Corporation in Trenton, New Jersey. He becomes its president and general manager.
  1944: Longstreth dies, leaving the position of president and general manager open. William Crosby becomes general manager.
  1945: Charles Bartley, working for the nascent Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discovers the use of thiokol as a stabilizer in solid-fuel rockets.
  1948: Elkton, Maryland, plant opens, producing solid rocket motors.
  1949: Thiokol produces the TX-18 Falcon missile, the world's first solid-fueled missile system.
  1957: In anticipation of the forthcoming Minuteman contract, the company builds its plant at Brigham City, Utah.
  1957: Thiokol Huntsville builds XM33 Pollux missile.
  1958: Thiokol merges with Reaction Motors Inc. (RMI), makers of liquid propellant rocket motor systems.
  1958: Thiokol receives contract to build the TU-122 rocket motor for the first stage of the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM system.
  1959: Thiokol Huntsville produces CASTOR strap-on booster rocket, used on the Atlas rocket.
  1964: Woodbine, Georgia plant is constructed to build solid propellant motors for NASA, but the agency changes course and uses liquid fuel.
  1969: Thiokol awarded U.S. Army contract to manufacture 750,000 Tripflares for use in the Vietnam War.
  1971: Explosion in magnesium flare assembly facility at Woodbine plant kills 29 and injures 50.
  1974: Thiokol wins the contract to build the solid rocket booster (SRB) for the Space Shuttle (Nov 29, 1973).
  1975: Thiokol succeeds Sperry Rand as operator of the large Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant near Minden, Louisiana.
  1978: The company sells its ski lift division to CTEC and its snow equipment division to Logan Manufacturing Company (LMC), owned by John DeLorean.
  1980: Thiokol acquires Carlisle Chemical Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.
  1982: Thiokol merges with Morton-Norwich products (owners of the Morton Salt concern, the Simoniz automotive products brand, and various chemical concerns). The merged company is called Morton Thiokol Incorporated (MTI).
  1986: An O-ring fault in an MTI SRB destroys Space Shuttle Challenger in flight. The company is found at fault for the destruction of Challenger and deaths of the astronauts. (see Space Shuttle Challenger disaster).
  1989: Morton Thiokol splits, with most of the chemical concern going with Morton. The propulsion systems division becomes Thiokol Inc.
  1998: Thiokol changes name to Cordant Technologies.
  1998: Thiokol branded polymer products purchased by PolySpec L.P., a Houston-based manufacturer of industrial coatings, marine decking, and subsea insulation products.
  2000: Thiokol merges with two divisions of Alcoa and with Howmet Castings and Huck Fasteners to become AIC Group (Alcoa Industrial Components).
  2001: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) Inc. (a company formed when Honeywell spun off its defense division) spends $2.9 billion buying Thiokol and related businesses from AIC/Alcoa. ATK built the third stage of the Trident missile and had earlier bought Hercules Aerospace Co., builder of the second stage. With the purchase of Thiokol, makers of the missile's first stage, ATK controls the lion's share of the US solid rocket-fuel market.
  2005: ATK-Thiokol wins the contract to produce the Ares I launch vehicle first stage for NASA's Project Constellation.
  2006: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) Inc. renamed ATK-Thiokol to ATK Launch Systems Group.
  2014: Orbital ATK is formed from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsyst
caption: A Trident II (D-5) FBM launches and fires its Thiokol solid rocket first stage.
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