This FEIS has been prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act to analyze the potential environmental consequences of the Proposed Action and the No-Action Alternative. The Proposed Action is the development, deployment, and operation of EELV systems. EELV systems would replace current Atlas IIA, Delta II, and Titan IVB launch systems and are intended to meet the requirements of the U.S. government National Executable Mission Model (NMM), both medium and heavy lift, at a lower launch cost than the present expendable launch systems. The proposed launch locations for the program are Cape Canaveral Air Station (AS), Brevard County, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), Santa Barbara County, California. Under the Proposed Action, three concepts were examined. Concepts A and B depict each of the two EELV contractor concepts. The number of launches analyzed for each of these concepts includes the government NMM, plus 16 commercial launches per year. Under Concept A/B, there is no distinction between government and commercial flights. For the analysis, each contractor is assumed to launch 50 percent of the combined total of EELV flights.

The EIS was prepared to analyze the potential environmental consequences of the Proposed Action and No-Action Alternative. The Proposed Action is to allow the addition of up to five strap-on solid rocket motors (SRMs) to the Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMC) Atlas V Launch vehicle and to allow the use of larger SRMs on the Boeing Delta IV launch vehicle, both of which are part of the EELV program. The launch locations for the Atlas V and Delta IV systems are Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Brevard County, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, in Santa Barbara County, California. For the analysis of the FSEIS, each contractor is assumed to launch approximately 50 percent of EELV flights involving SRMs (approximately 30 launches per year total). The No-Action Alternative is the previously approved implementation of the EELV program that was analyzed in the 1998 FEIS.