Advanced Launch System

Background

The Advanced Launch System (ALS) was a collaborative effort between the U.S. Air Force and NASA that ran from 1987 to 1990, emerging in the wake of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Colonel John R. Wormington, a retired Air Force brigadier general, led the Joint Department of Defense and NASA Advanced Launch System Program Office, with Lieutenant Colonel Michael C. Mushala serving as his deputy. The program was based at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

Mushala was promoted to colonel in October 1989. In February 1990, Wormington left to command the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, and Mushala took over as program director until the project ended in July 1990.

The ALS had an initial research and development budget projection of $15 billion, but early cancellation brought the final cost to just under $3 billion. The program office was distinct within Air Force Space Command for using Apple Mac OS computers instead of the standard Microsoft Windows systems, partly because NASA already used Apple machines. This office also pioneered the software that later became Microsoft Project.

Aims

The ALS program was tasked with deploying the space-based elements of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and finding a way to transport many thousands of tons of SDI equipment into low Earth orbit at a cost below $1,000 per kilogram, compared to the usual cost of about $10,000 per kg. Three main contractors—Boeing Aerospace, Martin-Marietta, and General Dynamics—each held an $800 million multi-year contract. The ALS program budget was just under $2.5 billion.

Progress

In 1989, the Bush administration, via the Defense Acquisition Board, was asked to ratify a plan for the ALS to be at an advanced state of development in 1990, ready for first flight in 1998, and fully operational in 2000, with a modular family of launch vehicles offering payload capacities from 5,000 to 200,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit by 2005. By late 1989, the program was no longer required, as the initial SDI phase would use existing Titan IV and Atlas II rockets, and later SDI launch requirements were too vague to justify continued ALS direction and costs. At the end of 1990, the ALS program was changed to a propulsion development project with an annual budget of $150 million.