Alliant Techsystems
Alliant Techsystems merged with Orbital Sciences Corporation on 9 February 2015 to become Orbital ATK. Orbital ATK was then purchased by Northrop Grumman and on 6 June 2018 became Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.
ATK did not secure any awards from NASA for development of a crew vehicle, but did sign an unfunded agreement in which they do receive technical assistance from NASA.
ATK is not an unfamiliar name in the space industry. This is the Utah company which provided the solid rocket boosters for the Space Transportation System (STS, or the Shuttle). ATK was also developing a solid rocket booster for the now defunct Constellation Program.
Being developed by ATK, in conjunction with Lockheed Martin and Astrium, is the Liberty. The Liberty rocket consists of a refinement of the solid rocket booster built for the space shuttle and adapted for use in the Constellation Program as the first stage. The second stage is Astrium's core for the Ariane 5. The Liberty capsule is a seven seat composite capsule which originated as a research project at Lockheed Martin to see if composite materials could serve in place of aluminum on the Orion capsule. This combination would result in a vehicle about 300 feet tall.
Page last modified: 30 June 2025 20:26:31.
