Boeing To Use Atlas V Rocket For Commercial Crew Tests

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- On Friday, United Launch Alliance (ULA) congratulated its partner, The Boeing Company, on the announcement of NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Space Act Agreement.

Boeing has selected ULA's reliable, commercially developed Atlas V as the launch vehicle for test flights of the Boeing CST-100 spacecraft. 

"ULA's launch vehicles provide the highest confidence, lowest risk solution for human spaceflight. The Atlas V has 31 consecutive successes—101 for the Atlas program as a whole," said Dr. George Sowers, ULA's vice president for Human Launch Services. "We recognize that crew safety is critically important, and we have made great progress in demonstrating Atlas V compliance with NASA's stringent safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight."  

CCiCap is the next logical step in developing commercially provided crew transportation services. In this program, ULA will build upon the risk reduction efforts conducted under CCDev 1 and CCDev 2 by completing the design of the Emergency Detection System, the Dual Engine Centaur, and the launch site accommodations.

"ULA will continue to work closely with Boeing to design and build an integrated commercial crew transportation system," said Sowers. "For several years, ULA has been performing in depth analysis and design under contract to Boeing to determine the optimum approach to deliver Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft and crew safely to orbit." 

The Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles were designed and developed by Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company, respectively, and the companies contributed 80 percent of the development funding. Those substantial upfront investments make the Atlas and Delta vehicles the most commercially-developed launch vehicles flying today. In addition, those vehicles were developed and launched in just four years from the contract award. 

"The Atlas V offers the earliest launch capability because it is flight proven and does not require any risky development," said Sowers. "We look forward to working with Boeing as we take the next steps to providing U.S. commercial crew transportation services." 

ULA program management, engineering, test and mission support functions are headquartered in Denver, Colo. Manufacturing, assembly and integration operations are located at Decatur, Ala., and Harlingen, Texas. Launch operations are located at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., and Vandenberg AFB, Calif.