Atlas ® V: Safe and Affordable Human Spaceflight1

The Atlas and Centaur programs have enjoyed a rich history as a trusted vehicle for numerous NASA Space Exploration missions, including manned spaceflight programs. Throughout space launch development, the Atlas expendable launch vehicles (ELV) have matured well beyond the early days of spaceflight. This paper addresses the attributes of the Atlas ELV that qualify it to be a workhorse for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Cargo for Space Exploration launches. By maintaining the exploration systems mission directorate goals of safe and affordable human spaceflight, Atlas keeps the affordability part of the equation intact. Atlas ® V has met the goals of the evolved ELV (EELV) program to reduce the cost per pound to orbit by 25–50 % over the heritage launch systems. Also, the incorporation of fault tolerance, design simplification, and robustness significantly improved vehicle reliability. Moreover, this paper explores the advantages of vehicle commonality with existing programs with emphasis on vehicle characterization (flight test) and demonstrated reliability inherently available due to synergy gained from higher production and flight rates