(CNN) -- An emerging commercial space race just got more intense. ATK, Alliant Techsystems, has for 30 years built space shuttle booster rockets at its plant in Promontory, Utah. The company has just announced it plans to build a rocket to take astronauts to the international space station. ATK says it will offer NASA launch services to the station using a new rocket called Liberty. Kent Rominger, former space shuttle astronaut and now ATK's program manager for Liberty, said, "We will be the safest vehicle on the street to carry a crew." The entrance of ATK into the commercial crew arena clearly signals an intense fight for NASA dollars and contracts to fly crews to the space station. Is this now a commercial space race? "Absolutely yes," Rominger said.
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ATK announces plans for rocket to take astronauts to space station
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Space X has already been awarded a NASA contract to fly cargo to station
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Space X says it can start transporting astronauts to station by 2015
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Each company says its system is NASA's best bet for crew transport
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