NASA Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Completes Launch Vehicle Adapter Review

April 5, 2013

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

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

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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