Despite the fact that it is still not clear whether the government will fund Alliant Techsystems’ (ATK) rocket which will haul astronauts to the International Space Station, the Utah-based firm has decided to go ahead with its project, believing that there will be no dearth of commercial passengers.

On Tuesday, ATK – in partnership with European company, Astrium - unveiled the two-stage Liberty rocket. The companies are hopeful that NASA will pick the rocket as its next launch vehicle for the US space program.

As such, the two leading rocket companies in the world believe that the space agency will deem it fit to award them at least some part of the $200-million pool of money which the agency has reserved for promising projects.

Talking about ATK’s plans for the project, the company’s spokeswoman Trina Patterson said: “With that seed money (from NASA), we would be able to test launch Liberty in 2013 and have it fully operational by 2015. Absent that funding, our first test would be in 2015, with the Liberty fully operational a couple of years later.”

Further noting that ATK has “other potential customers” in case NASA does not want to use Liberty, Patterson added that the rocket is, in fact, a “growth opportunity” for ATK – as it may be used for putting defense satellites into orbit and eventually driving the expansion of private companies into the space tourism business.