'Our products are sitting on other planets'

Wayne Mullins, a member of UAW Local 766, works on the Atlas V rocket, top, at Lockheed Martin in Waterton, Colo.

You could say Wayne Mullins has a job that's out of this world.

"Our products are sitting on other planets," said Mullins, a UAW Local 766 member and senior mechanic who works on final assembly of the Atlas V rocket. "It's all very intriguing."

Formerly operated by Lockheed Martin, the aerospace firm and Boeing formed a joint venture in 2006 called United Launch Alliance (ULA), combining their respective Atlas and Delta launch programs. The Atlas V is what's known as an expendable launch vehicle, meaning it's only used once.

Mullins has 28 years at the Waterton, Colo., facility, near Denver, where he and 300 other UAW members assemble, integrate and test the Atlas V.

Each rocket uses a Russian RD-180 engine that burns kerosene and liquid oxygen to power its first stage. Then an RL10 engine burns liquid hydrogen and oxygen to power its upper stage, or "Centaur," which is like a GPS satellite that fits in the rocket's nose.

When completed, the Atlas V is flown to a U.S. launch site to be used for military and commercial satellite missions. ULA supplies the Atlas V to the U.S. Department of Defense and other space agencies. Some notable payloads include the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and New Horizons Deep Space Probe.

The 53-year-old Mullins spent 17 years building satellites, including the Magellan, successfully launched in 1989.

From its maiden launch in August 2002 to June 2009, the Atlas V has had a near-perfect success rate in 16 attempts. To date, the Atlas rocket family has launched 82 consecutive successful flights – a record unmatched in the industry, according to the company's Web site.

So just how big is the Atlas V when it's finished?

"Wow," Mullins said, pausing to ponder its enormity. "It's 191 feet high and 12.5 feet in diameter." And it weighs more than 1.2 million pounds.

One more thing: Has Mullins ever wanted to go to the moon?

"Sure, but in this case, if you build it, you can't afford it."

Jennifer John