Under a NASA and U.S. Air Force contract, Orbital is designing and building the Orion Abort Test Booster (ATB). The ATB is part of NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle project that will succeed the Space Shuttle in transporting humans to and from the International Space Station, the Moon and eventually to Mars.
As part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation-led Orion team, Orbital is designing and building the Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) that will allow the astronaut crew to safely escape in the event of an emergency during launch pad operations and through the ascent of the Orion vehicle.
The ATB booster is a new configuration that will demonstrate and qualify the Orion Launch Abort System, similar to the role the Little Joe I and Little Joe II test boosters played in NASA’s Mercury and Apollo programs. The ATB will be used to simulate aborts at medium and high altitudes. To boost the Orion capsule to these altitudes, the ATB design utilizes government-supplied rocket motors and builds on flight-proven technologies from Orbital’s Taurus and Minotaur launch vehicles.
The basic contract calls for two planned flights in 2009 and 2010 with options for up to two additional flights and two spare vehicles through 2011.
