ATK and NASA sign agreement to support Liberty development
Posted: Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 6:44 AM ET (1044 GMT)
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and NASA signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) on Tuesday to help development of a proposed rocket that could be used for commercial crew launches. The agreement will support initial studies of the Liberty rocket including a system design review. Liberty, announced by ATK earlier this year, is similar to the Ares 1 rocket from the now-canceled Constellation program from NASA. The rocket uses a five-segment solid rocket motor, based on the four-segment motors used on shuttle launches, as its first stage, and an upper stage based on the core stage of the Ariane 5 rocket, provided by EADS Astrium. ATK and EADS have offered the rocket for commercial crew providers, although the four companies with funded Commercial Crew Development agreements from NASA to work on vehicle concepts have for now selected other launch vehicles, including the Atlas 5 and Falcon 9.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and NASA signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) on Tuesday to help development of a proposed rocket that could be used for commercial crew launches. The agreement will support initial studies of the Liberty rocket including a system design review. Liberty, announced by ATK earlier this year, is similar to the Ares 1 rocket from the now-canceled Constellation program from NASA. The rocket uses a five-segment solid rocket motor, based on the four-segment motors used on shuttle launches, as its first stage, and an upper stage based on the core stage of the Ariane 5 rocket, provided by EADS Astrium. ATK and EADS have offered the rocket for commercial crew providers, although the four companies with funded Commercial Crew Development agreements from NASA to work on vehicle concepts have for now selected other launch vehicles, including the Atlas 5 and Falcon 9.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Report outlines cost growth in canceled NASA exploration programs
Posted: Sat, Jun 27 11:14 AM ET (1514 GMT) Perseverance Mars rover finds more potential biosignatures
Posted: Sat, Jun 27 11:12 AM ET (1512 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Thursday, July 2
President Meloni receives ESA astronaut Parmitano
Government of Italy — 3:05 am ET (0705 GMT) China-Europe Earth observation cooperation moves toward greater complementarity: ESA official
Xinhua — 3:04 am ET (0704 GMT) Launch Date Confirmed for Seven GRUS-3 Earth Observation Microsatellites
Axelspace — 3:03 am ET (0703 GMT) Blue Origin Doubles Down On Return To Flight This Year
Aviation Week — 3:00 am ET (0700 GMT) The SpaceX IPO tells one story. Here is the more important one.
Space News — 2:58 am ET (0658 GMT) |
