Currently in the commercial space market, insurance companies indemnify the comsat customers for lost payloads and missions related to launch vehicle performance. Do you envision a similar situation for commercial crew missions?
Have you coordinated clocking of the spacecrafts between CST-100 and DC? And with Dragon?
What is the plan for the first test launch with a crewed vehicle? (Unmanned, a CST-100 or DC, estimated date for this event)?
What are your thoughts on SLS? I assume ULA are still proponents of the "master plan" with prop depots...http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/09/ula-claim-gap-reducing-solution-via-eelv-exploration-master-plan/..., but does that impact on support for a HLV?
If NASA ends up picking SpaceX as its only commercial crew provider after the end of CCicap in 2014, would ULA continue its human rating efforts relating to the Atlas V in order to service other companies that would decide to service the non-NASA market (e.g., Blue Origin or perhaps Dream Chaser)?Second, would you consider human rating the Atlas V Heavy to be used for Orion and will the Atlas V Heavy ever be a reality? Can you expand on the work that is being done on the dual centaur and the EDS as part of Boeing's CCiCap base period milestones. After the CCiCap base period, will the dual centaur and the EDS essentially be ready?
With the supply of RD-180 apparently finite, are there plans already in the works for a replacement kerolox engine(s) for Atlas V/human rating?
Have you any information from P&W about how long it would take them to develop and qualify a cheaper modern manufacturing and materials RL-10 version? If you do, about how long would that be? Also the same questions about XCOR’s RL-10 class replacement engine?
OK, so I got through one page (whew!!). Time for a break. Hopefully I can get to some more later this afternoon.
And we have been working hard on ACES, the next generation Centaur with all kinds of enhancements for producability, reliability, long duration, commonality and performance.
Congratulations to George and team. I know you guys have been trying to fight the fight for a long time now to convince NASA to use Atlas V for flying people (in spite of the fact that they're fine with using it for flying unique, multi $B unmanned payloads).Do you think the flight rates you'll get for Atlas V between commercial crew flights and existing satellite launches will get high enough to start seeing per-launch costs start dropping again? Does the higher flight rate and more RL-10s per flight make it look like you are likely to get the price of RL-10s back into a sane price/engine range?~Jon
Are there any plans to market a man-rated Atlas to customers outside of the current CCicap program or outside of the USA?
However, if the end customer is other than the USG, the sale is through either BA or LM.
With the possibility of running out of RD-180's and being replace by a new American made engine(s) will the Atlas first stage be upgraded to a 5 meter core and still be human rated ( Atlas phase II or similar )?That being with the stumpy version for light payloads, regular length with up to 6 SRB's, and with the possibility to upgrade to the 70mt triple core.
To maintain the excellent track record of Atlas V, what level of insight into crewed vehicle designs has ULA required? On the flip side, how much will ULA change its launch operations when keeping crew safe (via abort) can require loss of the launch vehicle during ascent?
I've got a question on EFT-1. What is the launch vehicle availability situation, given NASA are claiming EFT-1 Orion will be ready to fly way ahead of the Delta IV-H's availability. Are there any get-wells to stop the mission slipping into the summer of 2014?
What sort of work would be involved and on what timescale should it be desirous to man-rate the D4H in the near future and will the introduction of the RS-68A assist in achieving this in a timely fashion should it be needed?