Nov 20 2002
From The Space Library
NASA awarded SLI contracts to Boeing and Lockheed Martin for flight-demonstrator technologies. The flight-demonstrator contracts would support development of the future OSP, which would serve as both the transport vehicle and the escape vehicle for astronauts assigned to the ISS. NASA awarded a contract valued at US$301 million (including options through 2006) to Boeing's Phantom Works Division, to continue developing its X-37 test vehicle. The purpose of the X-37 was to test technologies that, eventually, NASA could use in the OSP. NASA awarded another contract worth US$53 million (including options through 2006) to Lockheed Martin, to develop a reusable, launchpad-abort demonstrator. The demonstrator, an escape module capable of recognizing problems and evacuating crew within seconds, would assist crews to escape emergencies occurring on the launchpad. (NASA, “NASA Awards Contracts for Flight Demonstrators,” news release c02-gg, 20 November 2002; Chris Kidler, “NASA Awards X-37 Contracts,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 27 November 2002.)
Boeing successfully launched its first Delta 4 rocket, which the U.S. Air Force would use in 2003 in the EELV program. The purpose of the EELV program was to develop reliable and cost-efficient launch capabilities for commercial and government payloads. The launch occurred at 5:39 p.m. (EST) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Delta 4, a “Medium+” configuration of Boeing's five-member Delta 4 family of rockets, deployed Eutelsat's (European Telecommunications Satellite Organization's) commercial telecommunications satellite W5 into geosynchronous transfer orbit. During the next scheduled Delta 4 launch~the first mission for the EELV program~the Air Force planned to use a Delta 4 Medium rocket to deploy the DSCS III A3 satellite for the Defense Satellite Communication System. (The Boeing Company, “Successful First Launch for Boeing Delta IV,” news release, 20 November 2002, http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/q4/nr_021120s.html (accessed 28 January 2010); U. S. Air Force, “U.S. Air Force Fact Sheet: Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle,” http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/space/factsheets/eelv.htm (accessed 28 October 2008).)
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