CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - NASA, Alliant Techsystem (ATK) and partner EADS of North America of Salt Lake City have agreed to collaborate on the development of the company's Liberty Launch System as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Development Round 2 activities.
The unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) through NASA's Commercial Crew Program will allow the agency and ATK to review and discuss Liberty system requirements; safety and certification plans; computational models of rocket stage performance; and avionics architecture designs. The agreement outlines key milestones including an Initial System Design review, during which ATK will present to NASA officials the Liberty systems level requirements, preliminary design, and certification process development. FREE VIDEO LIBERTY LAUNCH VEHICLE ANIMATION • WATCH ON YOUTUBE DM-3 5 SEGMENT SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER MOTOR STATIC TEST • WATCH ON YOUTUBE LAUNCH COMPLEX 39-B TRANSFORMS FOR FUTURE LAUNCHES • WATCH ON YOUTUBE ALL-ACCESS MEMBER VIDEO DOWNLOADS • DOWNLOAD "This agreement will provide the opportunity to look at the Liberty system to understand its design solution and risks, its capabilities and how it could be used to fly our NASA crew," said Ed Mango, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager. The program is based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "This SAA enables us to exchange information with NASA and receive valuable insight as we develop our fixed-price commercial crew vehicle and prepare it for test flight as early as 2014," said Kent Rominger, ATK vice president and program manager for Liberty. "This helps us to ensure that we provide the safest, most reliable, cost-effective and capable launch vehicle for crew transport." NASA will provide feedback to ATK based on its human spaceflight experience for advancing crew transportation system capabilities and the agency's draft human certification requirements. 
(Image Above: Liberty Launch Vehicle's shuttle and Ariane heritage. Credit: ATK) Both of the Liberty propulsion systems were designed for human rating. The five-segment motor is derived from the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motors and the core stage for the Ariane 5 was originally slated to lift the Hermes Space Plane. The fact that its upper stage was designed to lift a winged vehicle gives Liberty additional capability. The current goal is to have a test launch in 2014, with a crewed flight on the vehicle's third flight in 2015. "Now that we are working closely with NASA, we will also look for other funding sources to further speed the development of Liberty," said Rominger. ATK and EADS hope to conduct the first test flight of Liberty from Kennedy Space Center in 2014 or 2015. the launch will take place from Space Launch Complex 39-B, the former space shuttle launch pad being converted for commercial use. The newly-constructed Mobile Launcher will serve as Liberty's launch stand for the test and future operational flights. 
(Image Above: Artist's depiction of the Liberty Launch Vehicle moving to the launch pad. Credit: ATK) "With this SAA we believe NASA will benefit from gaining insight into the various systems we are developing, and we can benefit from the feedback," said Kent Rominger, vice president, strategy and business development for ATK Aerospace. "In the end, we hope to offer a commercial solution to NASA, the Department of Defense, and other commercial human spaceflight programs." For information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial
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