ATK Supports NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch and Plays Critical Role in Hubble...

ATK Supports NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch and Plays Critical Role in
Hubble Servicing Mission

More Than 100 ATK Tools Vital in the Repair of the Hubble Space Telescope

MINNEAPOLIS, May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliant Techsystem's (NYSE: ATK)
Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM) ignited and sent NASA's Space Shuttle
Atlantis and its crew on their journey to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space
Telescope. Those repairs will be aided by tools developed by ATK engineers in
partnership with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

ATK's two solid rocket motors provided the main thrust at liftoff and carried
the shuttle orbiter and its payload to an altitude of approximately 28 miles
in two minutes of flight, producing the equivalent of 15 million horsepower.

After two minutes, 16 ATK booster separation motors (BSMs) - four on the
forward skirt and four on the aft skirt of each booster - fired to jettison
the boosters away from the shuttle orbiter and external tank, allowing the
RSRMs to parachute back down through the Earth's atmosphere to be recovered
and reused while Atlantis continued on its way to meet up with the Hubble
Space Telescope.

ATK's participation in the fifth and final Hubble Servicing Mission started in
the late 1990s with the design and fabrication of the all-composite optical
bench for the third generation Wide Field Camera (WFC3) scientific instrument.
Along with the bench, ATK designed and fabricated the internal flexible heat
pipes that maintain the detectors at their nominal operating temperatures. A
dedicated team of ATK engineers and designers assisted in the integration and
testing of the instrument and provided 24/7 support for three thermal vacuum
tests at Goddard Space Flight Center.

"On this historic mission, ATK is pleased to play a key role in the both the
launch of STS-125 and the on-orbit repair of Hubble," said Blake Larsen, ATK
Space Systems president. "With this mission, Hubble will continue to rewrite
astronomy text books for years to come."

In addition, ATK led a multi-contractor team in designing, manufacturing and
testing the replacement electronics for the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)
instrument. This critical instrument's composite optical bench was also
fabricated by ATK.

Another new, exciting instrument to be added on this mission is the Cosmic
Origins Spectrograph (COS), which observes the light output from extremely
faint, far-away quasars and measures changes in that light as it passes
through the intervening gas between distant galaxies. In this way scientists
will learn what that gas is made of, how it changes over time and how it
affects the galaxies around it. ATK led the critical step of reworking and
testing the original Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) optical bench
in order to mate it with the COS instrument.

As the final Hubble repairs begin, tools designed and built by ATK will enable
astronauts to accomplish the delicate tasks of repairing and replacing Hubble
components and sensitive scientific instruments in space during five planned
spacewalks. ATK designed, manufactured, assembled and tested approximately 100
new tools for use on this Hubble Servicing Mission. In addition, ATK
refurbished and re-qualified 32 tools built by ATK for previous servicing
missions for use on this final Hubble mission

ATK's RSRMs and BSMs will be used for the remainder of the Space Shuttle
program with upgraded versions being used on NASA's next-generation launch
vehicle, Ares I. ATK is the prime contractor for the first stage of Ares I.

ATK is a premier aerospace and defense company with more than 19,000 employees
in 22 states, Puerto Rico and internationally, and revenues in excess of $4.5
billion. News and information can be found on the Internet at www.atk.com.

Certain information discussed in this press release constitutes
forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Although ATK believes that the expectations reflected in
such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can
give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking
information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Among those
factors are: changes in governmental spending, anomalies that may occur during
missions, budgetary policies and product sourcing strategies; the company's
competitive environment; the terms and timing of awards and contracts; and
economic conditions. ATK undertakes no obligation to update any
forward-looking statements. For further information on factors that could
impact ATK, and statements contained herein, please refer to ATK's most recent
Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q
and current reports on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission.

Media Contact: Investor Contact:

George Torres Jeff Huebschen
Phone: 801-699-2637 Phone: 952-351-2929
E-mail: george.torres@atk.com E-mail: jeff.huebschen@atk.com

SOURCE ATK

Media, George Torres, +1-801-699-2637, george.torres@atk.com, or Investors,
Jeff Huebschen, +1-952-351-2929, jeff.huebschen@atk.com, both of ATK