Boeing Completes First Milestone for NASA's Commercial Crew Initiative

Sept. 14, 2012

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

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

Paula Korn
The Boeing Co.
281-226-4114
paula.korn@boeing.com


RELEASE: 12-311

BOEING COMPLETES FIRST MILESTONE FOR NASA'S COMMERCIAL CREW INITIATIVE

HOUSTON -- The Boeing Company completed its first performance
milestone Aug. 23 for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability
(CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to lead to the availability of
human spaceflight transportation services for government and
commercial customers.���

In its Integrated Systems Review (ISR), Boeing presented the latest
designs of its CST-100 spacecraft, United Launch Alliance's Atlas V
rocket launch system, and ground and mission operations. These
designs will serve as the baseline for further development work to be
accomplished during CCiCap. The company also discussed its plans for
safety and mission assurance, which ultimately will contribute to
achieving certification of the system for human spaceflight.

"The ISR established a firm baseline configuration that will allow our
team to push forward with the final vehicle design", said John
Mulholland, Boeing vice president and program manager for Commercial
Programs. "We hope the rigor of our design and development process,
and our outstanding team of suppliers will help position the CST-100
as one of the next crew transportation vehicles to the space station
and other low Earth orbit destinations."

Technical experts from NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP)
participated in the review in Houston. They are in the process of
providing comments and advice based on more than 50 years of human
spaceflight experience.

"All of our industry partners are gearing up to push their human
spaceflight technologies further than ever before so America can have
its own crew transportation system around the middle of the decade,"
said Ed Mango, CCP's program manager. "This review was just the first
of many exciting and valuable milestones Boeing is expected to
complete during its funded partnership with NASA."

At the review, Boeing also presented results from numerous tests that
were conducted as part of its earlier Commercial Crew Development
Round Two Space Act Agreement with NASA. These tests included
parachute and air bag drops, abort engine firings and wind tunnel
tests.
NASA's new CCiCap agreements follow two previous commercial endeavors
by the agency to spur the development of crew transportation systems
and subsystems. Work by NASA's industry partners during CCiCap will
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, where critical
research is taking place daily to benefit all of humanity. The
overall goal of NASA's commercial space efforts is to make low Earth
orbit more accessible and open for business for other government and
commercial customers.

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew


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