ATK [ATK] developed a complete commercial crew space transportation system capable of reaching low-earth orbit with the potential for a test flight in 2014 and crewed-flight in 2015, according to a company statement.
The transportation system, called “Liberty,” entails the spacecraft, abort system, launch vehicle and ground and mission operations, according to a statement. Originally imagined as just a launcher service, ATK decided to change course and develop a “fully integrated system” at NASA’s request in 2011, according to Joe Olvia, ATK director of business development for Liberty.
Olvia told Defense Daily in a phone interview yesterday that Liberty has the capacity to hold seven people with a price-per-seat that “is significantly less than the cost per seat for America to fly our astronauts on a Russian Soyuz rocket,” which is around $60 million to $65 million.
After NASA requested a full system, ATK went out and teamed up with Lockheed Martin [LMT], which will supply crew interface systems design, subsystem selection, assembly, integration and missions operation support as a subcontractor, according to a statement. These subsystems could include avionics, guidance navigation and control, propulsion systems, environmental control system, docking system and other components, according to a statement.
Liberty’s launch configuration of a solid first stage and liquid second stage lowers the likelihood of failure and enables a flight path with total abort coverage, maximizing survival for the crew in the unlikely event of an anomaly requiring an abort, according to a statement. Olvia said ATK is looking at the advantages of using composite spacecraft as composites work until you get beyond low-earth orbit.
Olvia said Liberty is a good fit for the company because it has the capacity to carry a lot of extra mass into orbit and, in doing so, can produce as safe of a vehicle as possible.
“We can carry extra shielding if we want to and, thereby, accelerate the development on this,” Olvia said.
Liberty’s performance of 44,500 pounds to low-earth orbit enables the system to launch both crew and cargo and also serve non-crewed markets including the ISS, commercial space station servicing, United States government satellite launch and future endeavors, according to a statement.
Liberty has been developed under a CCDEV-2 unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with the NASA commercial program office at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., according to a statement. All development to date has been performed on internal funding from ATK and European Aeronautic Defence and Space subsidiary Astrium, according to a statement. Under this SAA, the team has successfully completed four milestones with the next major milestone, a structural test of the second stage tank, to be conducted at Astrium in June, according to a statement.
NASA’s interest in Liberty is part of the agency’s new focus on buying rides into orbit, or “renting cars,” as Olvia put it.
Other subcontractors on the Liberty project include Safran Snecma, which produces the Vulcain 2 engine; Safran Labinal, which provides second stage wiring; L-3 [LLL], which provides first stage, abort and telemetry system avionics as well as second stage telemetry and abort system integration prior to launch; and Moog Inc. [MOG.A], which provides thrust vector control and propulsion control, according to a statement.