CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The sight of three massive rockets lying side by side -- all, in fact, built together as the new Delta 4 Heavy -- prompts visions of a new kind of space shuttle.
Boeing, which rolled the rocket out to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, has those visions. So does Lockheed Martin.
Either contractor might be the one to launch the still-in-development orbital space plane on one of its new rockets.
Delta program manager Dan Collins said Boeing's head start is likely to give it an advantage when it comes to bidding on a new ship to take people to and from the International Space Station.
"We'll have at least three launches by the time that competition rolls into town," Collins said. " . . . I think it's a real advantage for the engineers and the overall community to have actual flight data." After months of system, electrical and fueling tests, Boeing will launch the heavy version of its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle first, on a test flight in July. Two more heavy flights are contracted for 2005.
Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5, also developed under the Air Force's EELV program, will have a heavy-lift version ready in the third quarter of 2006, spokeswoman Julie Andrews said.
Both contractors are developing proposals for the orbital space plane, which could be flying around the end of this decade. They're talking with NASA about what they need to do to meet requirements set out by the agency.
Those include what it will take to prove the Delta 4 Heavy is safe enough to carry humans to orbit, Collins said.
Andrews said that it's possible a non-heavy Atlas 5 would be able to do the job.
"Atlas and Delta have different capabilities," she said. "For example, the Atlas 500 series vehicles can do some of the missions that require a Delta" heavy-lift rocket.
Both contractors are waiting for NASA to release its official Request for Proposal for the space plane, though they've been working from a draft as they develop their designs.
"We're putting the best of Boeing into it," said Ed Memi, a spokesman based at Boeing NASA Systems in Houston. "It is a priority for us."
"We have made excellent progress towards finalizing our OSP design, paying close attention to NASA's requirements," Lockheed's Andrews said. The company will be ready to submit its proposal in March, she said.
In addition, Lockheed Martin is working on the pad-abort demonstration program, which is aimed at developing an escape system that would save the crew from an exploding rocket.
Now, NASA is conducting a review in which it evaluates contractors' designs based on the requirements that have been released so far.
That systems design review should be complete in January, spokeswoman Kim Newton said at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Meanwhile, Boeing plans to push its rocket into vertical position today. When the top is put on, it will be 235 feet tall. That's about 50 feet taller than a shuttle.
It rolled out of its Horizontal Integration Facility about 3:15 p.m. It took more than an hour for workers to drive it down the road and up the sloping ramp to the seaside launch pad, at a maximum speed of 5 mph.
The orange-and-white common booster cores -- the three side-by-side rockets -- hung off the sides of the ramp at Space Launch Complex 37 as the Delta 4 Heavy crept forward under a gloomy sky.
Before getting into fueling tests, Boeing will hook up the rocket to the pad's facilities and make sure ground and rocket systems are communicating as expected, Collins said.
The launch tentatively is scheduled for July 4, according to Boeing's schedule. The rocket will carry a dummy payload with instruments so Boeing can learn more about how well the rocket works.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright 2003 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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