How To Get NASA To Underwrite Your New Product
ATK Plans Commercial Ares I, Aviation Week
“ATK, which is building the first stage of NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle by recycling the solid-fuel booster it builds for the space shuttle, wants to make the same capability available to other users for missions without crews. Ron Dittemore, president of ATK Launch Systems, said the human-rating that led NASA to build the Ares I first stage around the shuttle booster should also be attractive to other customers with “high-value” payloads, including the Defense Dept. and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).”
Reader note: Great news taxpayers! First NASA pours money into a problematic launch vehicle and then ATK gets to use the beneficiary of that public investment as a product to sell – for profit. What a concept!
Ares I Vibration Problem Fixable, Aviation Week
“Horowitz, now an independent aerospace consultant whose clients include ATK, the Ares I first-stage contractor, and a “greybeard” advisor to NASA through the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, served on the tiger team that reviewed the thrust oscillation issue after it arose last fall. Garry M. Lyles, the senior NASA engineer who headed that review panel, is scheduled to brief Congress on his findings the week of March 31.”
