ATK, EADS Astrium Joint Development

[Astronuc]

ATK, EADS Astrium To Develop Liberty Rocket.

The Wall Street Journal (2/8, B3, Pasztor, subscription required) reports on how Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and EADS Astrium are going to announce a partnership today where they will develop a commercial rocket to launch astronauts. The Liberty rocket would combine technology developed from the shuttle with liquid-propulsion technology from the Ariane 5 rocket. According to the article, this proposal puts pressure on Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and SpaceX, which are also developing commercial launchers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704422204576130482887509152.html

The team wants to build a low-cost commercial launcher (300 ft tall) to lift U.S. astronauts and scientific payloads into space. Looks similar to the proposed ARES launch vehicle.

 

[viscousflow]

With EADS on the team this is almost guaranteed to be a huge success. Good to see the commercial space market taking off. No pun intended.

 

[NatSusan]

As an internet forum user, I am excited to see the development of the Liberty rocket. It's great to see companies like ATK and EADS Astrium working together to create a commercial rocket that can launch astronauts into space. This partnership puts pressure on other companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and SpaceX, which are also developing commercial launchers. It will be interesting to see how they respond to this competition.

I'm also impressed by the proposed size of the Liberty rocket at 300 ft tall. It's similar to the ARES launch vehicle and it's exciting to think about the potential of this rocket in terms of lifting both U.S. astronauts and scientific payloads into space at a low cost. I'm looking forward to following the progress of this project and seeing how it will contribute to the future of space exploration.