Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – A little piece of Downers Grove went up into space on Artemis II.
The NASA Standard Inhibitor (pictured), made by Downers Grove-based Chemring Energetic Devices, has been declared “The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois” in this year’s Makers Madness contest, put on by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.
“It’s the spark that sets up the energetic trains for the vehicle,” said Chemring president Steven Hill. “There are about eighty of them that go around the vehicle itself. Anytime you have a space launch, anytime you have a separation activity, particularly in space, you need something to push that away, something to light that initiating event.”
Chemring has 237 employees, and its relationship with NASA dates to the Apollo missions. “The founders of the company were in the ordnance business,” said Hill, “and when you think about space, you need something that’s highly reliable that’s going to work every time. and that’s about the chemistry, that’s about the energetic material to get up and start that device, and that’s what the company wanted to go up and do, and that’s how they got their first contract with NASA.”
167,000 votes came in for about 150 nominees.
