The Boeing Company announced today that it has selected the Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance of Centennial to launch the Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft.
“This selection marks a major step forward in Boeing’s efforts to provide NASA with a proven launch capability as part of our complete commercial crew transportation service,” said John Elbon, Boeing’s vice president and program manager of commercial crew programs.
The CST-100 is a reusable capsule-shaped spacecraft. If NASA selects Boeing for a development contract with sufficient funding, Boeing officials said ULA will provide launch services for an autonomous orbital flight, a transonic autonomous abort test launch, and a crewed launch, all in 2015.
Atlas V also is the rocket of choice for two of the three other companies that have received commercial spacecraft development money from NASA.
Sierra Nevada Space Systems of Louisville has selected Atlas V to launch its Dream Chaser space plane, as has Blue Origin of Washington state for its New Shepard spacecraft.
On July 18, ULA and NASA announced an agreement to share information to determine whether Atlas V can safely carry astronauts on commercial spacecraft to low-Earth orbit destinations including the international space station.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
