LV firm hopes Glenn’s space shot ignites interest in shuttle

Brian Seals

Thursday, Oct. 29, 1998 | 10:50 a.m.

American Pacific Corp. of Las Vegas joined the nation today in focusing on the launch of the space shuttle carrying senior citizen astronaut John Glenn.

The reason: American Pacific makes a fuel component that helps power the shuttle into orbit.

American Pacific Chief Executive John Gibson is hopeful Glenn's ride will bode well for U.S. space efforts.

"We all very excited about it," Gibson said. "I think it reflects a new interest in the space program. It should help NASA with its space exploration program in the future."

American Pacific's Cedar City, Utah, plant produces ammonium perchlorate, a fuel oxidizer used in the shuttle's two reusable solid rocket boosters. About 150 of the 200 employees at the Cedar City plant are devoted to producing the fuel component.

It takes them a little less than a month to produce the 1.5 million pounds used for each launch. Gibson estimated the company has produced about 140 million pounds of ammonium perchlorate since the first space shuttle launch in 1981.

American Pacific cornered the market on ammonium perchlorate earlier this year with the acquisition of Kerr-McGee's Henderson-based rocket fuel business.

That deal, completed in March, made American Pacific the lone supplier of ammonium perchlorate in the United States.

Gibson said the fuel component accounts for between 60 and 80 percent of the company's revenue. American Pacific reported overall sales of $44 million in fiscal year 1997.

That was before the acquisition of Kerr-McGee's ammonium perchlorate business, which was expected to double American Pacific's sales of the fuel component. It's used not only in the space shuttle booster motors, but in solid-fuel satellite-launching rockets and in Defense Department missiles.