ATK-GASL newest tenant at Bethpage Morrelly Center

The latest Long Island company to take space at the new Morrelly Homeland Security Center in Bethpage is one of the region's oldest -- ATK-GASL of Ronkonkoma.

ATK-GASL's core business  tests propulsion systems used in aviation and space projects using  wind tunnels. But the company has been eyeing homeland security programs lately, and so it has secured 1,100 square feet at the center, said Dean Modroukas, ATK-GASL's director of advanced programs.

Specifically, ATK-GASL is working on sensors that could be used by first responders, such as police officers or firefighters. The sensors, Modroukas said, could be launched in small packages into the scene of a disaster to emit signals advising on temperatures in a specific area or other data, Modroukas said. They are covered with a special adhesive that helps them cling to surfaces such as walls.

ATK-GASL calls the device Wallfly.

The company will base about five of its 65 people at the Morrelly center, Modroukas added.

ATK-GASL is the 16th company to take space at the 90,000-square-foot center since it opened in March in a building at Northrop Grumman Corp. that decades ago housed workers who built Grumman's lunar lander spacecraft. The company, formerly known as GASL, was acquired in 2003 by ATK, a Minneapolis-based aerospace and defense company with annual sales of $5 billion. GASL was established in 1954.

Morrelly Center president Frank Otto said the facility has room for only two more companies. Most of the businesses there are relatively small and are working on aspects of homeland security. Otto said he has recently been talking to some industry giants as well, including Boeing, the nation's largest builder of commercial aircraft.

Boeing would not be a tenant at the center, Otto said, but rather an associate member eligible to attend center events and meetings. Otto said signing Boeing would give the center bragging rights when it markets itself around the country.