NASA Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Completes Launch Vehicle Adapter Review

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April 5, 2013

Trent J. Perrotto 
Headquarters, Washington                               
202-358-0321 
trent.j.perrotto@xxxxxxxx 

Candrea Thomas 
Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 
321-867-2468 
candrea.k.thomas@xxxxxxxx 

Patricia Soloveichik 
The Boeing Company Space Exploration 
256-476-6046 
patricia.a.soloveichik@xxxxxxxxxx 

RELEASE: 13-098

NASA COMMERCIAL CREW PARTNER BOEING COMPLETES LAUNCH VEHICLE ADAPTER REVIEW

HOUSTON -- The Boeing Company of Houston, a NASA Commercial Crew 
Program (CCP) partner, has successfully completed a preliminary 
design review (PDR) of the component that would connect the company's 
new crew capsule to its rocket. 

The review is one of six performance milestones Boeing has completed 
for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, 
which is intended to make available commercial human spaceflight 
services for government and commercial customers. The company is on 
track to complete all 19 of its milestones during CCiCap. 

Boeing is one of three U.S. companies NASA is working with during 
CCiCap to set the stage for a crewed orbital demonstration mission 
around the middle of the decade. Future development and certification 
initiatives eventually will lead to the availability of human 
spaceflight services for NASA to send its astronauts to the 
International Space Station. 

The component that was reviewed is called the Launch Vehicle Adapter. 
The critical structure is being designed by United Launch Alliance 
(ULA) to join Boeing's Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) 
spacecraft to ULA's Atlas V rocket, just above the rocket's second 
stage. 

"Solid systems engineering integration is critical to the design of a 
safe system," said Ed Mango, NASA's CCP manager. "Boeing and all of 
NASA's partner companies are working to build in proper systems 
integration into their designs. This review with Boeing and their 
partner ULA was a good review of the current state of these important 
design interfaces." 

In recent weeks, teams from NASA, Boeing and ULA met at ULA's 
headquarters in Denver, Colo., to assess requirements and 
capabilities to safely launch people into low-Earth orbit from U.S. 
soil once again. The PDR was a culmination of early development and 
preliminary analysis to demonstrate the design is ready to proceed 
with detailed engineering. 

"The PDR was an outstanding integrated effort by the Boeing, ULA and 
NASA teams," said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager 
of Boeing Commercial Programs. "The ULA design leverages the heritage 
hardware of the Atlas V to integrate with the CST-100, setting the 
baseline for us to proceed to wind tunnel testing and the Launch 
Segment-level PDR in June." 

In addition to the Launch Vehicle Adapter PDR, Boeing recently 
completed two additional CCiCap milestones, including the Engineering 
Release (ER) 2.0 software release and the Landing and Recovery Ground 
Systems and Ground Communications design review. 

The ER 2.0 software release was completed Jan. 25 in Boeing's Avionics 
and Software Integration Facility Lab in Houston. This test laid the 
foundation for the software structure to control and fly the 
spacecraft, as well as communicate with pilots and ground systems. 

The landing and recovery ground systems and ground communications 
design review Jan. 16 to 18 in Titusville, Fla., established the 
baseline plan for equipment and infrastructure needed for CST-100 
spacecraft ground communications and landing and recovery operations. 


For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program and its 
aerospace industry partners, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew 

	
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