About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-04-778R 1 (2004-06-24)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaamme0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 June 24, 2004 The Honorable Wayne Allard Chairman The Honorable Bill Nelson Ranking Minority Member Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Committee on Armed Services United States Senate Subject: Defense Space Activities: Continuation of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program's Progress to Date Subject to Some Uncertainty The U.S. space policy states that access to and use of space is critical to preserving peace and protecting U.S. national security and also benefits the country's civil and commercial interests. Air Force guidance explains further that access to space requires the ability to launch critical space assets, when needed, by a mix of space launch systems from standard launch pads at major support facilities. This is to ensure that a launch failure or other catastrophic event does not prevent mission success. These critical space assets, or satellites, are used for a wide range of government activities such as communications, navigation, and ballistic missile warning. The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, consisting of both Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles, was established as the strategic launch system to meet the nation's critical space mission needs and correspond with U.S. policy that requires U.S. government satellites to be launched on U.S. manufactured launch vehicles. The program was implemented in 1995 to support and sustain assured access to space with more affordable launch vehicles, provided by two contract launch providers, that replaced the past, or heritage, systems such as the Delta II, Atlas II, Titan II, and Titan IV. Specifically, the EELV program's overarching objective called for the development of a national expendable launch capability for assured access to space that would reduce the overall recurring cost of launch by at least 25 percent to 50 percent while maintaining or improving the reliability and capability levels over those of the heritage systems. The Air Force further identified four EELV system capabilities referred to as key performance parameters-mass to orbit,' vehicle design reliability, 'Mass to orbit is the requirement to lift a certain amount of payload to a specific orbit. GAO-04-778R Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most