ATK reports that it has developed Liberty into a completecommercial crew transportation system, including the spacecraft,abort system, launch vehicle, and ground and mission operations,designed from inception to meet NASA's human-rating requirementswith a potential for the first test flight in 2014 and Libertycrewed flight in 2015. The company also announced Lockheed Martin will provide support tothe ATK and Astrium Liberty team as a major subcontractor on theproject. "Our goal in providing Liberty is to build the safest and mostrobust system that provides the shortest time to operation usingtested and proven human-rated components," said Kent Rominger, vicepresident and program manager for Liberty. "Liberty will give the U.S.
a new launch capability with a robustbusiness case and a schedule that we expect will have us flyingcrews in just three years, ending our dependence on Russia." "Liberty will enable a successful commercial space program andresult in a globally competitive capability that America doesn'thave today," said Rominger. "This program is changing the way we dobusiness and can also result in a positive change to governmentprograms." Liberty's test flights are expected to begin in 2014, with a crewedmission anticipated in late 2015. The current schedule will supportcrewed missions for NASA and other potential customers by 2016,with a price-per-seat that is projected to be lower than the coston the Russian Soyuz rocket. Liberty's approach is to bring together flight-proven elementsdesigned from inception to meet NASA's human-rating requirement,reducing development time and costs, and providing known, reliableand safe systems.
The simple configuration of a solid first stage and liquid secondstage lowers the likelihood of failure and enables a flight pathwith total abort coverage, maximizing survival for the crew in theunlikely event of an anomaly requiring an abort. In addition, the Liberty spacecraft leverages design work performedat NASA Langley Research Center on the composite crew module andlaunch abort system, for which ATK was a contractor. "Because Liberty provides a safe and reliable vehicle for the crew,as well as a sustainable business for years to come, it can be asuccessful commercial business," said Rominger. "Liberty's businesscase benefits from mature, flight-proven elements that dramaticallylower our up-front development costs." Liberty has a robust and sustainable business case that will createand sustain thousands of jobs across the United States includingAlabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, New York, Ohio,Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Its low remaining development cost accelerates the time to market,filling NASA's requirements, and provides a quicker return oninvestment to outside entities.
Liberty's performance of 44,500 pounds to low-earth orbit enablesthe system to launch both crew and cargo and also serve non-crewedmarkets including ISS cargo up and down mass, commercial spacestation servicing, U.S. government satellite launch, and futureendeavors. "We believe that no other offering can match Liberty's safety,spacious spacecraft, customer service and performance," saidRominger. "These traits enable the Liberty business to provide thebest commercial space flight experience." The Liberty spacecraft includes a composite crew module, which ATKbuilt at its Iuka, Miss., facility as part of a NASA risk-reductionprogram at Langley between 2007 and 2010. As prime contractor, ATKis responsible for the composite crew module, Max Launch AbortSystem (MLAS), first stage, system integration and ground andmission operations, while Astrium provides the second stage poweredby the Vulcain 2 engine and Lockheed Martin provides subsystems andother support.
"Astrium is proud to be part of the ATK Liberty team and to provideour proven second stage, which is powered by the Vulcain 2 engine,as an integral part of this exciting next-generation launchsystem," said John Schumacher, CEO of Astrium in North America, anEADS North America company. "Initially, we will ship the second stage to the Kennedy SpaceCenter where it will be integrated by the skilled workforce there.However, once Liberty's business base is established in the U.S.market, we envisage Liberty upper stage manufacturing in the UnitedStates." Lockheed Martin is providing crew interface systems design,subsystem selection, assembly, integration and mission operationssupport for the Liberty spacecraft. These subsystems could includeavionics, guidance navigation and control, propulsion systems,environmental control system, docking system and other components. "Combining Lockheed Martin's and ATK's decades of human spaceflightexperience to create the Liberty space vehicle will help ensureAmerica's crew access to the International Space Station - soonerrather than later," said Scott Norris, Lockheed Martin Lead,Liberty Program.
"We look forward to our role supporting Liberty as it delivers on ahighly-effective cost solution for NASA crew and for commercialmissions." The program has optimized and streamlined development, fabricationand mission operations while ensuring the utmost safety to supporta commercial marketplace. Liberty also builds upon processes fromexisting ATK, Astrium and Lockheed Martin commercial programs. ATK's commercial programs include solid rocket motors for variouslaunch vehicles, system integration and composite technology (forcrew module, Delta IV, Atlas V and A350 Airbus compositestructures) and other commercial products. Astrium builds the Ariane 5, which launches the majority of theworld's commercial satellites and is afforded the lowest insurancerates based on its successful track record. Lockheed Martincommercial programs include satellites, the Atlas V and Athenalaunch vehicles.
"The team's combined best practices enable Liberty to offeraffordable access to space, both to serve existing market needsand, critically, to spur the development of new markets that dependon affordable, safe access to space," said Rominger. Liberty has been developed under a CCDEV-2 unfunded Space ActAgreement (SAA) with the NASA Commercial program office at theKennedy Space Center. All development to date has been performed oninternal funding from ATK and Astrium. Under this SAA, the team has successfully completed fourmilestones. The next major milestone is a structural test of thesecond stage tank, to be conducted at Astrium in June.
"Working with the NASA team under the SAA has provided significantbenefit to the development of the Liberty crew transportationsystem," said Rominger. The Liberty team will be working with NASA centers to furtherleverage lessons learned, engineering expertise test, launchfacilities and mission operations, including Kennedy, Johnson,Marshall, Langley, Glenn, Ames and Stennis. Additional subcontractors for Liberty include Safran/Snecma, whichprovides the Vulcain 2 engine; Safran/Labinal out of Salisbury,Md., which provides second stage wiring; L-3 CommunicationsCincinnati Electronics (L3-CE), which provides first stage, abortand telemetry system avionics, as well as second stage telemetryand abort system integration prior to launch at KSC; and Moog Inc.(NYSE: MOG.A and MOG.B), which provides thrust vector control andpropulsion control. I am a professional writer from Other Luggage, Bags & Cases, which contains a great deal of information about crib bumper pads , funny door mats, welcome to visit!
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