NASA announced today its selection of United Launch Alliance to participate in its new Commercial Crew Development
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30136# (CCDev) Program. NASA created the CCDev Program to develop system concepts, key technologies, and capabilities that ultimately will be used in commercial crew space transportation systems.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30136# ULA was awarded $6.7 million to develop an Emergency Detection System (EDS), which is a significant element necessary for a safe and highly reliable human rated launch vehicle.
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[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=geneva,arial,verdana][SIZE=-1]The EDS monitors critical launch vehicle and spacecraft systems and issues status, warning and abort commands to the crew during their mission to low Earth orbit. ULA studies show that the development of the EDS will help meet the requirements for human rating the Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles.[/SIZE][/FONT]