Neel Mehta
United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has introduced a competition that seeks to encourage participants to develop a launch support attachment bracket for ULA’s Atlas V rocket.
ULA opened the 3-2-1 Liftoff! ULA Rocket Hardware Challenge through GrabCAD‘s digital manufacturing portal for designers and engineers, ULA said Monday.
Participants will work to design a new support bracket for ground processing at the base of the Atlas V payload fairing.
The bracket serves as a work platform support point before a launch mission and remains attached to the rocket’s upper stage during flight, according to ULA.
ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said the company aims to help transform the future of space launch with additive manufacturing techniques.
“The ULA Rocket Hardware Challenge invites people familiar with the industry and new to aerospace to participate in that transformation – the opportunity to design rocket hardware that will deliver critical technologies to orbit,” he added.
Bruno, along with professionals from ULA and GrabCAD parent company Stratasys, will judge proposed bracket designs.
ULA said it will recognize the competition’s top three finalists and subsequently consider the winning design for use on the company’s next-generation Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle.
