|
WASHINGTON, August 22, 2006/Satnews Daily/ —
NASA said it is making an unprecedented investment in commercial space
transportation services with the hope of creating a competitive market
for supply flights to the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA said the two industry partners who won the Commercial Orbital
Transportation System (COTS) award last week will receive a combined
total of approximately $500 million to help fund the development of
reliable, cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit. The agency is using
its Space Act authority to facilitate the demonstration of these new
capabilities.
NASA signed Space Agreements on Aug. 18 with Space
Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of El Segundo, Calif., and
Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK) of Oklahoma City to develop and demonstrate
the vehicles, systems, and operations needed to support a human facility
such as ISS. Once the space shuttle is retired, NASA hopes to become
just one of many customers for a new, out-of-this-world parcel service.
But NASA said the partners will be paid only if they succeed. Payments
will be incremental and based upon the partners' progress against a
schedule of performance milestones contained in each Space Act
agreement. The agreements were tailored to the individual partners and
negotiated before partnership selections were made. NASA will gauge
progress through site visits and milestone achievements.
Usually, the space agency issues detailed requirements and
specifications for its flight hardware and it takes ownership of any
vehicles and associated infrastructure that a contractor produces. For
COTS, NASA specified only high level goals and objectives instead of
detailed requirements where possible, and left its industry partners
responsible for decisions about design, development, certification and
operation of the transportation system. Because NASA has a limited
amount of money to invest, it encouraged the partners to obtain private
financing for their projects and it left them free to market the new
space transportation services to others.
This model for pursuing of commercial space services is another first
for NASA and a reflection on the growing maturing of commercial space
capabilities.
“This is not a traditional NASA procurement or
program. We could change the economics of space flight with this,” said
Lindenmoyer, whose office oversees COTS. NASA expects use of this model
to increase over time as the exploration program unfolds, potentially
extending to the provision of power, communications, and habitation
facilities by commercial entities.
Limited resources and the space shuttle's pending retirement created the
need for the new service, and the emergence of enabling technology has
created a favorable environment for COTS development, according to Timm.
Industry interest was keen, with nearly 100 companies submitting
expressions of interest and 20 companies submitting initial proposals.
NASA expects that purchasing commercial space transportation services
will be more economical than developing government systems of comparable
capability. This could free up additional resources for lunar missions
and other activities beyond low-Earth orbit.
The biggest benefit of the anticipated cost savings is the opening of
new markets for an emerging industry, according to Lindenmoyer. “If we
had cost-effective access, many new markets -- biotechnology,
microgravity research, industrial parks in space, manufacturing, tourism
-- could start to open. That's what is so important about this effort.”
Recent Stories:
NASA Selects Crew and Cargo Transportation to Orbit Partners
NASA's GLAST Burst Monitor Set for Spacecraft Integration
NASA Selects Teams for Space Weather Mission and Studies
NASA Taps AirLaunch LLC on Small Satellite Development
|
