From staff reports
Huntsville Times
Boeing Co. officials announced this morning plans to open an Orbital Space Plane program office in Huntsville.
The announcement comes as NASA is ramping down its work on the International Space Station. Boeing officials said today that some of the work done for the space station will be moved to the offices of the new Orbital Space Plane and Alternate Access to Station programs.
The programs are working on ways to support the International Space Station.
The Orbital Space Plane, which is projected to cost about $12 billion over the next five years, is being developed in Huntsville.
"We're already utilizing a number of the people (in Huntsville) who have worked on the space station in the past," said Volker Roth, deputy director of the Orbital Space Plane program. "We will grow the team here."
The consolidated space plane program office will be under the direction of Boeing Vice President/Program Manager Chuck Allen, former vice president and program director of the Army Systems Comanche program office.
Volker said work for the space program's new office will be done in NASA facilities in Huntsville and at Boeing's office in Cummings Research Park.
"As we grow the activity over time, we'll be looking for additional facilities to house the increasing size of the team," he said.
About 700 people work for Boeing's space station support programs. Peri Widener, senior executive for Boeing in Huntsville, said the city's "agile work force" will make it easy for much of these employees to be transferred to the Orbital Space Plane program.
"We're able to easily transition resources, and that's good for the community and the people who work here," she said.
The Orbital Space Plane is envisioned as a multipurpose spacecraft that would perform crew rescue and transfer missions for the space station.
