. Space Travel News .




.
LAUNCH PAD
ULA Completes Critical Milestones Toward Certifying Atlas V for Human Spaceflight
by Staff Writers
Centennial CO (SPX) Feb 08, 2012

As NASA moves forward with the Commercial Crew development Program, ULA will offer human-certified Atlas launch services to meet the needs for the crew transportation system providers.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced the completion of two key milestones leading toward the certification of the Atlas V launch vehicle for human spaceflight.

ULA has successfully completed the third and fourth milestones of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA). In December, ULA conducted a series of detailed reviews that reflected the culmination of efforts involving technical experts and representatives from NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

A Tailored System Requirements Review (TSRR) was successfully conducted which summarized months of work with ULA and NASA. The team reviewed the detailed evidence that demonstrates how the existing, flight-proven Atlas V meets the intent of NASA's Human Spaceflight Certification requirements.

The team paid particular emphasis to requirements traceability, verification and certification planning. Because Atlas V is already certified to fly the nation's most complex exploration and national security missions, ULA was able to provide a wealth of detailed system and sub-system analysis, qualification, certification, and flight data resulting from 28 successful missions.

"The TSRR was the result of an extensive effort with NASA and our commercial spacecraft partners during which we cooperatively reviewed the details of Atlas V design, analyses and operations," said George Sowers, ULA's vice president of business development and advanced programs.

"This was the first time that we were able to share detailed Atlas V design and flight data with NASA Human Spaceflight experts."

A Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) Review also was conducted to evaluate safety-critical launch vehicle systems. This included the details of existing Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) data, Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) results, explosion modeling analyses, system hazard analyses and fault coverage assessments. The PSA leveraged similar data developed in support of Atlas V launches of critical NASA missions including Pluto New Horizons, Juno and the Mars Science Laboratory.

"The PSA provided a firm foundation to show how the demonstrated reliability of the Atlas V offers significant benefits towards meeting NASA's stringent crew safety requirements," Sowers said.

"We received invaluable insight from the NASA's Commercial Crew Program while allowing us to provide the details behind the reliability and robustness of the Atlas V design."

"ULA gave us an invaluable opportunity to get to know its Atlas V systems and subsystems through our unfunded partnership," said Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango. "And we are happy to share our knowledge and expectations to keeping our crews safe."

"With the recent launch of the Mars Science Laboratory for NASA, Atlas V once again demonstrated the highest confidence, lowest risk solution for human spaceflight," Sowers added.

Three of the four current NASA CCDev partners providing commercial crew integrated services have selected Atlas V as their launch vehicle.

"The flight-proven and NASA-certified Atlas V eliminates all risk of launch vehicle development and early flight failures inherent in new, unproven designs," Sowers said.

As NASA moves forward with the Commercial Crew development Program, ULA will offer human-certified Atlas launch services to meet the needs for the crew transportation system providers.

"The Commercial Crew Development Program is on a path to create a robust commercial crew transportation capability to low-Earth orbit (LEO). ULA looks forward to continued work with our spacecraft customers and NASA to develop an early U.S. crew space transportation capability providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective access to LEO and the International Space Station," Sowers said.

Related Links
United Launch Alliance (ULA)
Launch Pad at Space-Travel.com




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries



And it's 3... 2... 1... blastoff! Discover the thrill of a real-life rocket launch.



.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



LAUNCH PAD
Feb 13 set as new date for Europe's Vega rocket
Paris (AFP) Feb 3, 2012
The European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday that the first launch of a long-awaited light rocket, Vega, which had been pencilled for February 9, would take place on February 13. Vega is being deployed at a new pad at ESA's space base at Kourou, French Guiana, to complement ESA's heavyweight Ariane 5 and the Russian-made medium launcher Soyuz. An ESA spokesman told AFP that the new dat ... read more


LAUNCH PAD
Mobile Launcher Tests Confirm Designs

Iran to launch new generation of satellites

ULA Completes Critical Milestones Toward Certifying Atlas V for Human Spaceflight

Roscosmos Aims to Make Sea Launch Profitable

LAUNCH PAD
Mars radar finds possible ocean sediments

Mars Express radar gives strong evidence for former Mars ocean

Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600 million year drought

Heavy Ions Killed Mars Probe

LAUNCH PAD
LAUNCH PAD
LAUNCH PAD
LAUNCH PAD
LAUNCH PAD
China announces new launch rockets

LAUNCH PAD
Mission to Land on a Comet

Project NEOShield: Asteroid defence systems

Asteroids: The New 'It Mission' for Space Exploration


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement