The Nation - News from Oct. 17, 1986

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, following a recommendation by experts from the National Research Council, said it will build a second horizontal test stand for the redesigned space shuttle booster rockets. NASA said that the new stand, which will be built at the Utah plant of rocket maker Morton Thiokol Inc., “will be designed to simulate, more closely than the existing SRM (solid rocket motor) test stand, the stresses on the SRM during an actual shuttle launch and ascent.” The agency is seeking a new joint system to eliminate the flaws that led to the Challenger disaster.