Comments on: ATK’s big Liberty push

By: For the CCiCap losers, what’s next? « NewSpace Journal

For the CCiCap losers, what’s next? « NewSpace Journal — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:22:54 +0000

[…] story, though: the company has invested significantly in its push for a CCiCap award, including a media blitz in the last month. Company officials have suggested they would continue to pursue the program, but at a slower pace, […]

By: Chris Bergin

Chris Bergin — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:57:26 +0000

Heh! That was sort of intentional (the headline), as the EPC is built in France. Didn’t the French come running over the hill (sailing across the ocean) when the US needed them when fighting for independence? Let me ask the famous historian Mel Gibson…

Anyway, I was sort of thinking along those lines when I wrote it. If it’s still too ironic, I’ll get my (red) coat!

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:07:45 +0000

Certainly many companies think that media spots are effective in the D.C. area, but so far CCDev decisions seems to have been made in out of JSC in Houston.

I suspect the same will happen with the CCiCap program, and I think Bolden will be keeping tight control over the process to make sure it isn’t influenced by politics.

However, I think ATK’s media push is setting up what comes after the CCiCap awards, which if they lose could be a call to the GAO for a review. Having politicians in your pocket also calling for a review is not a bad thing either.

In any case, I think the ATK Liberty effort overall is a head scratcher – horrible 1st stage for crew, big modification for turning a reliable 1st stage into a (hopefully) reliable 2nd stage, and a bigger than needed crew capsule for the pedestrian purpose of rotating crew at the ISS. The newly announced cargo capability looks neat, but who has the money to spend on the non-reusable cargo modules?

The rocket, the spacecraft and the cargo capability are all too big for the current needs of the ISS, especially when compared to what the other CCDev companies are doing. And in this case “too big” would also mean “more money”, so I’m not sure how well they compete against the current CCDev participants.

Guess we’ll know soon…