No major hurdles to upgrade Atlas V rockets for people

New Scientist reports that there are no major obstacles to upgrading the Atlas V rocket for human spaceflight. Bigelow Aerospace is in negotiations with Lockheed Martin to launch humans and cargo to its planned orbital space station.

Meanwhile, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin defended his decision to reject the Atlas V for the shuttle successor in favor of a shuttle-derived Ares rocket. Griffin accused “losing contractors [of] spotting an opportunity coincident with an election year to reopen what was a settled issue three years ago.”

The Orlando Sentinel also has a story about Ares and Robert Bigelow’s plan for the Atlas V.