PROMONTORY, Box Elder County NASA is giving a big pat on the back and a big chunk of money to the rocket builders at ATK.

It involves work the company is doing to achieve the next giant leap into space, much farther than humans have ever gone before. And it may start with a steppingstone beyond the far side of the moon.

"Well, it's all about getting to Mars," said Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator, who traveled from Washington to personally thank ATK employees for their cost-cutting efforts.

"A big thank you to the ATK team," Dumbacher said to a crowd of employees gathered Tuesday in one of the massive production buildings on ATK's sprawling facility. "You guys are a big part of us getting back into space and beyond low Earth orbit."

ATK had a big setback a few weeks ago when it lost out to some other companies competing for NASA money. In that showdown, the goal was development of systems for getting astronauts into low-Earth orbits used by the International Space Station.

But ATK is still very much in the running for much more ambitious space adventures thousands of times farther from Earth. Possible destinations include asteroids, the moon and, of course, the red planet.

"(The) ultimate destination is Mars," Dumbacher said. "We're going to Mars. Where we go in between here and Mars is still being sorted out."

About 600 workers at ATK are focused on the project.

"It absolutely gets my juices going," said Charlie Precourt, a veteran astronaut and now a vice president of ATK. "The excitement, the intensity, the pulling together of all the resources that we can to do something we've never done before is always the thing that gets people going."

ATK is adapting the company's old space-shuttle boosters to lift long-range vehicles into space. NASA has already kicked in more than $200 million for ATK's work on the so-called "Space Launch System."

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NASA gives ATK a thank you, big check, possible mission to Mars