NASA Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Completes New Spacecraft, Rocket Milestones

May 31, 2013

Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

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

Kelly George
The Boeing Company Space Exploration, Houston
256-226-4367
kelly.george@boeing.com

RELEASE: 13-166

NASA COMMERCIAL CREW PARTNER BOEING COMPLETES NEW SPACECRAFT, ROCKET MILESTONES

HOUSTON -- The Boeing Company of Houston, a NASA Commercial Crew
Program (CCP) partner, recently performed wind tunnel testing of its
CST-100 spacecraft and integrated launch vehicle, the United Launch
Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The testing is part of NASA's
Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, intended
to make commercial human spaceflight services available for
government and commercial customers.

Boeing and ULA also worked together to test a newly developed
component of the Atlas V's Centaur upper stage. Boeing now has
completed two of eight performance milestones under CCiCap and is on
track to complete all 19 of its milestones around mid-2014.

"The Centaur has a long and storied past of launching the agency's
most successful spacecraft to other worlds," said Ed Mango, NASA's
CCP manager at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "Because
it has never been used for human spaceflight before, these tests are
critical to ensuring a smooth and safe performance for the crew
members who will be riding atop the human-rated Atlas V."

The wind tunnel tests, which began in March and wrapped up in May at
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., were the first
interface tests of Boeing's spacecraft, launch vehicle adaptor and
launch vehicle. A scale model of the integrated spacecraft and rocket
was placed in Ames' 11-foot diameter transonic wind tunnel. The data
gathered provides Boeing with critical information it needs to ensure
its system is safe for launching crews to low-Earth orbit.

The Centaur liquid oxygen-feed duct line was tested in March in
Murrieta, Calif., to characterize how liquid oxygen moves from the
stage's oxygen tank to its two engines where the propellant will be
mixed with liquid hydrogen to create thrust. The Centaur, which takes
over after the Atlas V first stage runs low on propellants, will push
the spacecraft to its intended orbit. The Centaur has an extensive
and successful history of delivering spacecraft to their
destinations, including carrying NASA's Curiosity science rover to
Mars.

"The CST-100 and Atlas V, connected with the launch vehicle adaptor,
performed exactly as expected and confirmed our expectations of how
they will perform together in flight," said John Mulholland, Boeing
vice president and program manager for Commercial Programs.

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 astronauts to the International
Space Station from the United States.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew


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