Alliant Techsystems

Alliant Techsystems, known as ATK, was an American aerospace and arms manufacturer headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia. It became an independent company in 1990 when Honeywell spun off its defence businesses to shareholders. It entered the aerospace market in 1995 by buying Hercules Aerospace and in 2001 acquired Thiokol, the maker of the reusable solid rocket motor used to launch the Space Shuttle. On 9 February 2015 its sporting group was spun off as Vista Outdoor and its aerospace and defence groups merged with Orbital Sciences Corporation to form Orbital ATK, which Northrop Grumman bought in 2018. It is recorded here as a defunct legacy contractor in American aerospace and rocket motor manufacturing.