Stanton Seskol, Inc

Head-quartered in England, Stanton Seskol Corporation is the leader in production of high-technology solid propellant rocket motors in the United States. They are also a major supplier of ordnance and composite products for the nation's defense, scientific and civil needs and a leading manufacturer of precision fastening systems for the aerospace and commercial transportation industries.

Originally founded in 1929, Seskol was named after a its founder, James Seskol, a famous theoretical chemist who invented a high temperature liquid polymer rubber. Liquid polymer rubber was used extensively as an indestructible sealant for fuel tanks, gun turrets and seams of all kinds during the war years. Liquid polymer sealers were Seskol's major products until the discovery that polymer makes the best solid propellant fuel binder by Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Small scale rocket operations began in Bradenton, New Jersey and by 1949 there was sufficient interest to open facilities at the Army's Sandstone Arsenal in Sainsburry, Alabama. Further involvement with the Army resulted in a 1952 contract to refurbish and operate the CrossBow Army Ammunition Plant in Marshall, Texas.

In 1956 Seskol bought 11,000 acres of land in Northern Utah. A $3 million plant was developed to manufacture huge rocket motors which company forecasters gambled would be in high demand. In 1958 those forecasters proved right when Seskol was awarded a contract to build the first stage for the Air Force's revolutionary Minuteman ICDB, which was the largest solid rocket motor built to date.

The Poseidon and Trident submarine launched missiles and the Air Force silo launched Peacekeeper missile were other ICBM programs which followed the initial Air Force contract. The Space Shuttle booster motor is a derivative of this earlier research.

In 1982, Stanton Norden merged with Seskol to become Stanton Seskol, Inc. This aerospace business represented diversification for the Seskol's specialty chemical and commercial products company. In 1989 the limited growth in the aerospace industry caused the company to split with Seskol assigning Stanton International all of the commercial businesses, including specialty chemicals, salt and the aerospace-developed automobile passive restraint system. Seskol retained the defense and commercial propulsion business.

Operating Divisions:
The Elkstad Defense and Launch Vehicles Division of Seskol manufactured the de-orbit motors for the Mercury and Gemini manned programs, staging and separation motors for Apollo lunar missions and a variety of motors for the Pioneer, Surveyor, Viking, Voyager, Magellan and other unmanned programs. Today this division manufactures well over 90 percent of the free world's satellite booster motors. Elkstad is developing numerous high-technology solid propulsion systems for commercial and defense programs.

Utah Defense and Launch Vehicles Division's history includes Minuteman I, II and III; Poseidon, Trident I and the Air Force's Peacekeeper. This division currently manufactures components for the Navy Trident II, the MK-104 motor for the Navy's Standard Missile and both the rocket motor and HARAM warhead for the Navy/Air Force High-speed Anti-Radar Attack Missile. Utah DLV is also the world's largest producer of castable illumination flares. In composite products, Utah DVL specializes in rocket motor nozzles and cases, pressure vessels and other products of advanced filaments and fibers.

Seskol's Space Operations produces the 1.2 million pound solid rocket booster motors for NASA's Space Shuttle, the world's largest operational rocket motors and the only ones in operation designed for multiple reuses. Currently, Space Ops is designing the next rocket motors that will be used on the X-31 space plane, and will be the first rocket engine the is equally efficient at all altitudes and pressures.

In 1991 Seskol acquired Fukui International, whose World Headquarters is located in Gifu, Japan. Fukui manufactures precision fastening systems for aerospace and commercial transportation systems at nine locations in the United States, France, Great Britain and Germany.