As expected, shuttle solid-fuel rocket builder Alliant Techsystems - ATK - will be the prime contractor for design and development of the first stage of NASA's next-generation Crew Launch Vehicle, intended to propel astronauts into low-Earth orbit after the space shuttle's retirement in 2010.

An illustration shows the Crew Launch Vehicle design using a shuttle solid rocket booster. Credit: ATK/NASA

Ron Dittemore, president of ATK Thiokol Propulsion of Brigham City, Utah, and a former space shuttle program manager for NASA, told CBS News Wednesday details of the eventual contract are still being worked out, including what sort of test flights might be required. But he said the company could be ready for an unmanned test launch, using a modified "single-stick" shuttle booster and a dummy upper stage, before the end of 2008.

NASA's new space exploration architecture calls for completing the international space station by 2010 and replacing the space shuttle with a new Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV, reminiscent of the Apollo moon capsules of the 1960s and 1970s. NASA plans to retire the shuttle by 2010 and to launch the first CEV in the 2011/2012 time frame.

The CEV will be boosted into space by a two-stage launch vehicle made up of a modified shuttle solid-fuel rocket booster, built by ATK, and a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen fueled upper stage. The CEV will be equipped with solid-fuel escape rockets like NASA's Apollo and Mercury capsules.

"What we have so far is NASA has announced (Wednesday) their intention to have ATK be the prime for the first stage of the Crew Launch Vehicle," Dittemore said in a telephone interview. "And as that continues to work forward, NASA and ATK will work together to define the scope of the activities over the next several months and turn that scope into actual milestones and performance agreements between the two of us."

The CLV first stage as currently envisioned would be made up of a standard four-segment space shuttle rocket booster with an interstage adapter to interface with the upper stage. The nozzle, steering system and other components in the aft end of the booster would be virtually unchanged, allowing NASA to launch it from the same mobile launch platforms currently used by space shuttles.

This artist's concept shows the Crew Exploration Vehicle launching to space atop the shuttle SRB-derived booster. Credit: ATK

Details about what - if any - test flights might be required are still being discussed. But "you could do a test flight of the first stage, a dummy second stage and maybe some type of capsule or launch abort system on top" without any major modifications of existing infrastructure at the Kennedy Space Center, Dittemore said.

"The mobile launch platform, you know it's got two holes today for the solid rocket motors," he said. "You might cover one hole up and you'd still use the same attach hardware, the hold-down posts. And so there's probably very little that you would have to do for a test flight."

When could such a flight be launched?

"I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we could do a test flight before 2008 is complete," Dittemore said. "A first stage, the interstage required to mate to a second stage, you could have a mass simulator for a second stage and still do a number of different technical objectives if NASA so desired. But you could do that type of test before 2008 is complete.

"And of course, you would like to have your first full-up test flight near the end of the decade to support the retirement of the shuttle. In 2010, 2011, you'd like to be ready with the full vehicle."

Dittemore called Wednesday's announcement "the first step in moving toward cutting metal and getting hardware ready for the real fire and smoke activities that need to take place for us to get ready to replace the shuttle."

Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: LUNAR ARCHITECTURE PLAN DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF NEW ROCKETS PLAY | Free preview
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF LUNAR LANDER PLAY | Free preview
SUBSCRIBE NOW