Completion of a yearlong joint study with NASA has brought the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket a step closer to being certified to launch crew-carrying vehicles to the international space station starting later this decade, the space agency says.
NASA announces that ULA had completed its work on an unfunded Space Act Agreement during which it examined, among other things, possible failure modes for the proven Atlas 5. Denver, CO-based ULA, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture, fulfilled the fifth and final milestone of the agreement, awarded in 2011 as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) 2 program, in August.
Recipients of unfunded Space Act Agreements get access to NASA infrastructure and expertise but no money changes hands.
Data from the ULA study is critical to efforts by Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. to field commercial vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the space station. Houston, TX-based Boeing Space Exploration and Sierra Nevada Space Systems of Louisville, CO, have selected the Atlas 5 as the launcher for their proposed vehicles, which are being developed under funded Space Act Agreements awarded by NASA in August.
If either company ultimately wins a contract to transport astronaut crews, Atlas 5 will have to be certified by NASA as safe for human transport prior to 2017, the agency’s notional date for the first privately operated astronaut flight.
Excerpted from Space News. Click here to read the full article.