In a previous diary, I talked about Obama's push for commercial space. And in a couple of other diaries, I talked about 2 of the shuttle replacements that are being worked on - The SpaceX Dragon/Falcon 9, and the Orbital Science Corporation's Cygnus/Taurus 2. But thats not the end, and it won't be just 1 vehicle.
Let me introduce you to vehicle number 3, the Boeing-Bigelow Aerospace & United Launch Alliance's Orion-lite/Atlas V 402
As opposed to the previous vehicles, this is a conglomerate, of old companies and new. Boeing is quite a known entity, and they have substantial history in both aviation and space (and weapons, yes, I know). There is also Bigelow Aerospace; they are developing a serious of orbital inflatable space stations (currently they have 2 prototypes in orbit). Their next station is a manned station, but they have delayed it until they have multiple vehicles that can deliver astronauts to orbit. Finally, there is United Launch Alliance (ULA). ULA is a joint project, created by Lockheed Martin & Boeing, to launch the Delta IV rocket & Atlas V.
The Atlas V is the latest incarnation of the Atlas rocket. This rocket dates back to the Atlas missile, originally developed to launch nuclear weapons. It was modified into a space launch vehicle in the 60s, and launched 5 Mercury astronauts into orbit (including John Glenn). Today's Atlas can loft quite a bit more than those used in the 60s. There are 17 varieties of the Atlas V, currently available. The different variations allow for different sizes in payloads, both mass & volume. The variant most commonly discussed for manned launches is the Atlas V 402, which can put 12,500 kg into LEO. ULA received money from NASA's part of the stimulus package to begin the process to man-rate the Atlas V.
The spacecraft is frequently referred to as Orion-lite (although whether that will be its actual name is open for debate). There is substantial evidence thatBigelow Aerospace was involved in the design and development of the vehicle. However, it was Boeing that won a limited government grant, with money from NASA's piece of the stimulus bill. Frequently, as I noted, many people refer to it as Orion-lite, because of outward similarities to the Orion space capsule. However, there are more then a few indications that it is not Orion-LIKE. My suspicion (and this is merely my view from the peanut gallery, at this point) is that Bigelow did most of the large scale design, and now Boeing is doing refinement, and also will be the company that does the manufacturing of the vehicle.
A mockup of Orion-lite
As great as companies like SpaceX are, and I want them to do well, the reality is that Boeing isn't going away, and getting them to spend their own money on helping us to open the space frontier is a great thing.
I am sorry, but no movies of the entire system this time.