n INTEGRATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS A plan for production culminated in the final proposal submitted “A large portion of our business is ef- Boeing team would use April 13. Now, the team is preparing for ficiently producing products for the highly discussions with NASA about the proposal competitive commercial marketplace. We Lean, space experience and awaiting NASA’s decision in August. looked across Boeing and tapped that exper- “We offer unique capability to NASA’s tise for our proposal,” Chilton said. in NASA’s Ares I rocket Ares I team. We bring value based on our NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Cen- experience in commercial, defense and ter in Huntsville, Ala., will manage the BY ED MEMI space programs, along with innovation contract to manufacture and assemble the and new advocacy and outreach efforts,” Ares I upper stage and is responsible for oeing is leveraging its cost- said Jim Chilton, vice president of Explo- integration and overall design of the Ares saving Lean manufacturing prac- ration Launch Systems. “We listened very family of rockets. Btices and human space flight closely to the customer, and that drove our Boeing is competing against an Alli- experience in its proposal to build the approach to meet their needs.” ant Techsystems–led team that includes upper stage of NASA’s Ares I rocket at Representatives of the Ares I capture Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in team and the Space Exploration Engi- Rocketdyne. Boeing formed a team of sup- New Orleans. neering and Operations functional or- pliers on the Ares I upper stage production Ares I is the first of a new family of ganizations visited six facilities across that includes Hamilton Sundstrand, Moog, rockets NASA is designing to launch Boeing to survey and leverage company Northrop Grumman, Orion Propulsion, crews and cargo into low Earth orbit as large-scale production and manufactur- SUMMA Technology, United Space Alli- the United States steps up its efforts to re- ing expertise. The team visited facilities ance and United Launch Alliance. turn to the moon by 2020. For Boeing, the in San Antonio, Philadelphia, Seattle, “We waited until we had a good upper-stage production contract repre- St. Louis, El Segundo, Calif., and Macon, understanding of NASA’s program re- sents a key opportunity to support NASA’s Ga. Each visit included tours of produc- quirements before finalizing our team- Constellation space exploration program. tion facilities and detailed presentations ing relationships. We have a team that is The Ares I capture/proposal team start- from production and manufacturing tailored for this procurement and should ed its efforts more than a year ago; that subject-matter experts. do very well in the evaluation. We be- lieve NASA will see the benefit our team brings,” Chilton said. About half of Boeing’s business is in production programs like the upper stage. This artist’s conception of the Ares I crew GRAPHIC launch vehicle shows scheduled jettison “We know how to produce efficiently, on of the escape tower as the upper stage NASA schedule and on cost. We will share inno- powers its payload toward orbit. Boeing is vative Lean manufacturing concepts with competing to produce the upper stage for the Ares I, NASA’s first new human-rated NASA to provide additional cost reduc- launch vehicle since the space shuttle. tions,” Chilton said. “We know Lean man- ufacturing can help transform Michoud Assembly Facility using the best practic- es of our commercial airplanes, defense and space divisions.” Boeing’s Space Exploration unit also is busy competing to produce the instrument unit for the Ares I rocket, which sits below the crew exploration vehicle and on top of the upper stage. It includes the avionics and guidance system. The 309-foot-long (94 meters), two- stage Ares I rocket is capable of launching approximately 25 metric tons (27.6 tons) into low Earth orbit. It is slated for its first flight in 2009. n [email protected] BOEING FRONTIERS May 2007 25.