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.