Atlas may be used for manned vehicles

 

FLORIDA TODAY • 12:34 AM, Feb. 5, 2012  |  


Atlas V is making strides toward getting certified for human flights. / United Launch Alliance photo

John Kelly: Atlas V rises as vehicle of choice for manned missions
Written by
John Kelly

It’s beginning to look more and more like the Atlas V rocket is going to one day carry astronauts into Earth orbit.

Transitioning Atlas V from launching satellites and robotic space probes to delivering people to the International Space Station would represent a major breakthrough in cooperation among the nation’s private, military and civilian space interests.

That level of cooperation, leveraging existing, successful space assets, is going to be critical to fielding a space program that makes steady progress, stays on schedule, and comes in on budget. It was super-critical to the rapid, successful ramp up of the early human spaceflight program, built upon the transition of launch technology first employed by the military.

This past week, United Launch Alliance and NASA quietly noted that the rocket met two important deadlines on its way toward being deemed capable of safely launching human space missions. A pair of detailed analyses have determined preliminarily that the rocket can be made to meet stringent NASA Human Spaceflight Requirements.

NASA’s commercial crew program, still in its infancy, has agreements with four companies developing systems that could carry crews to orbit. Of those four, three have stated their intent to use Atlas V as their booster of choice.

The companies’ choices demonstrate that the other major developers in the bid to create new privatized space taxi service believe Atlas V’s near-perfect track record launching expensive, priceless national security spacecraft to orbit can be built upon for human spaceflights as well.

SpaceX is developing a rocket it says is capable of launching piloted versions of its Dragon spacecraft. Right now, the company is focusing on launching the first cargo version of the spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station.

NASA could have gone down this path last decade and possibly shaved years — and billions of dollars — off the development time of a capability to carry astronauts to the space station. Each successful flight of the Atlas V system boosts confidence in the engineering team’s ability to make it work as the launcher for our manned systems.

And, yes, there are models of the Atlas V on the drawing board that have the kind of heavy-lift capability that would be required for the ambitious, longer-duration human expeditions beyond low-Earth orbit.

Continued positive movement down the path to flying humans on today’s Atlas V will only make more urgent this question: Why would the United States not build upon that success and pursue the heavy-lift model instead of yet again investing billions of dollars and more than a decade starting from scratch on the proposed government super-rocket?

If the NASA rocket development program doesn’t have measurable progress by the time the first people are flying on Atlas V or SpaceX’s Falcon 9, then the questions from taxpayers and elected officials are going to be focused keenly on why NASA is spending money on its own vehicle.

Contact Kelly at 321-242-3660or jkelly@floridatoday.com


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