David J. Barton
ATK and Astrium have signed a teaming agreement with NanoRacks, where NanoRacks will market a commercial space transportation service to astronauts and researchers.
ATK said it is the team lead for the Liberty Transportation Service, with Lockheed Martin and Astrium serving as subcomponent providers.
The agreement builds on research and human space flight-related operations Astrium has done in Florida and Texas with NASA for a decade, said John Schumacher, president for North American operations.
Through Liberty, researchers will have the opportunity to fly into low Earth orbit with their experiments to the International Space Station, according to ATK.
Nanorocks has more than 50 customers including government organizations, domestic and international educational institutions and research organizations.
Astrium and Nanorocks are working to provide hardware and services for the U.S. National Laboratory, located on the International Space Station.
Researchers can also travel on other spacecraft or use a Liberty mission as their own research platform, according to ATK.
Unmanned test flights are planned for Liberty in 2014 and 2015 and the first human flights are scheduled for 2015, the company said.
