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CAPE CANAVERAL - Two of NASA's prime contractors are teaming withEurope's Astrium to develop a commercial space taxi built fromshuttle heritage booster rockets and a prototype NASA spaceshiporiginally designed as an alternative to the deep-space Orioncapsule, the companies announced on Wednesday. The system, known as Liberty, is among at least four contenders forthe next phase of NASA's so-called Commercial Crew program,scheduled to be awarded this summer. Since the retirement of the space shuttles last year, the UnitedStates is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to theInternational Space Station, a US$100 billion (S$125 billion)laboratory that circles about 240 miles (386 km) above Earth. The fare is more than $60 million per person. NASA hopes to buy rides instead from US companies beginning in2017. The US space agency currently is funding space taxi design work atfour firms - Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies, Sierra NevadaCorp, and Blue Origin, a startup owned by Amazon.com founder JeffBezos. NASA is reviewing bids for at least two, 21-month integrated designcontracts, valued at $300 million to US$500 million apiece. ATK,which built the space shuttle booster rockets, teamed with Astrium,an EADS company that is one of the manufacturers of Europe's Ariane5 rockets, to bid for NASA space taxi development funds last yearbut was not selected. The company continued to work on the project with its own funding,said Kent Rominger, a five-time shuttle astronaut who now serves asan ATK vice president and Liberty program manager. ATK's new proposal adds a composite seven-person capsule, a launchescape system, propulsion module, avionics, an operations plan andother components for a complete space launch system. Rominger said Liberty could be ready to fly crew to the station in2015 for less than what Russia charges for rides in its Soyuzcapsules. The Liberty rocket's first stage would be an extended space shuttlebooster rocket, a design originally developed under NASA'snow-canceled Ares 1 rocket program. Liberty's second-stage engine would be provided by Astrium. The newly announced capsule, also named Liberty, is a compositespaceship developed by NASA as a potential alternative to the Oriondeep-space capsule. Lockheed Martin, NASA's prime contractor for Orion, is a partner inthe Liberty program. ATK was on NASA's design team for the composite alternative. ""As a taxpayer, I want to get the best value out of what I'veinvested into our government. For example, Ares 1 (rocket program)was canceled, so to now pick up where the government left off is avery smart thing to do. It brings us the best value as a nation,"Rominger told Reuters. Liberty would fly from one of the space shuttle launch pads at theKennedy Space Center in Florida. Depending on funding, test flights could begin in 2014. Rominger said the capsules, which would parachute to a waterlanding, are designed to fly up to 10 times. In addition to carrying seven astronauts, the rocket and capsulecould carry cargo to and from the space station, as well as be usedfor satellite launches and other missions. Rominger declined to say how much ATK and its partners have spentdeveloping the Liberty system so far. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China CCTV Camera Housings , China HD-SDI Camera, and more. For more , please visit Waterproof IR Camera today!
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