Firms to fill in for shuttles ---

Up, up, and away.

Is it a bird, or a plane, no it is a civilian firm' rocket on its way to the International Space Station, or that is what is being looked into with the help of some pocket change from NASA. (~$500 million dollars)
- LRK -

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http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060819/NEWS02/608190325/1007
Firms to fill in for shuttles

Private sector will provide access to space station after fleet retires

BY LARRY WHEELER
FLORIDA TODAY

NASA picked two small space firms Friday to share a $500 million contract to provide access to the International Space Station after the shuttle fleet retires in 2010.

Although the civilian space agency plans to buy its own fleet of rockets and spacecraft to haul people and cargo to and from the space station, as well as the moon, Friday's award is intended to give the private sector a toehold on the government-built space station.

The winning firms were SpaceX and Rocketplane-Kistler.

"We are a customer that needs to re-supply the space station after we retire the shuttle," said Scott Horowitz, associate administrator of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. "If the commercial sector can do it safely and reliably and more cost effectively, it is in our best interest to buy that service."

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So learn the acronym "COTS" as it applies to space.
- LRK -

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NASA announces Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration programme winners.
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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0608/18cots/


What they signed up for.
- LRK -

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[DOC] Commercial Orbital Transportation Services File Format: Microsoft Word - View as HTML (To be developed by NASA/COTS participants collaboration, based on NASA Human Rating Requirements NPR 8705.2, Man Systems Integration Standard 3000, ...
http://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/cots/COTS%20Final%20Announcement.doc

[62 page Microsoft Word Document - 491 KB - LRK -]
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What was it that I was going to do on the ISS?

Now if they use the ISS for something that helps us develop space before it falls from the sky, should be interesting to see if others can go to it.

Who will pay the actual bill for each launch?
A commercial firm is going to want to see some Return On Investment.

Wonder what the insurance bill will be if you don't get some good launches before you start heading to the ISS?

Will these be man-rated (excuse me, person rated), or just cargo flights?

Who will pay for the Russian launches if they are the only person lifters?



Thanks for looking up with me.


Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex19aug19,1,6354668.story?coll=la-headlines-business
NASA Awards Two Contracts to Develop Private Spaceship
>From Bloomberg News
August 19, 2006

NASA said Friday that it had awarded contracts valued at $485 million to two closely held companies to develop a cargo ship to serve the International Space Station, planting the seeds for a commercial space industry.

The contract for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services will be shared by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., also known as SpaceX, based in El Segundo, and Rocketplane Kistler, based in Oklahoma City. It is the first time the U.S. space agency has hired contractors to build a spaceship that private companies, not the government, would own.

Snip

The winners beat out two publicly traded companies, SpaceDev Inc. of Poway, Calif., and Webster, Texas-based Spacehab Inc., along with privately held Reston, Va.-based Transformational Space Corp. and Andrews Space Inc. of Seattle.

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http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20060819/nasa_selects_two_companies_to_develop_private_spaceship-id-101200.html
NASA selects two companies to develop Private Spaceship

by Bithika Khargarhia - August 19, 2006 - 0 comments

Anticipating private spaceflights taking off sometime in future, NASA on Friday awarded contracts valued at $485 million to two small companies, both recovering from different failures to develop a new commercial spaceship.

NASA selected Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of El Segundo, California, and Rocketplane-Kistler (formerly part of Kistler Aviation based on Seattle's Eastside) of Oklahoma City, to support the space agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration initiative, which represents NASA's program to coordinate the commercial delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

The two companies would get a total of $485 million in "seed money" from NASA over the next five years to develop and test-launch new spacecraft with the idea that they would one day deliver cargo to the international space station (ISS). That means, if successful, the drive will give NASA the capability to re-supply the ISS after the 2010 retirement of the Space Shuttle.

The agreements with SpaceX and Rocketplane-Kistler could increase to $1 billion in development assistance if NASA and Congress decide the companies can safely take astronauts to and from the orbital outpost at a relatively low cost.

Among the two chosen companies, one Rocketplane-Kistler has formed an association with big-name companies, including Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, with long aerospace histories. However, it emerged from bankruptcy last year.

And the other company, the SpaceX is funded by the Internet magnet behind PayPal, Elon Musk, who is a Chief Executive of SpaceX, but had a flaming breakdown in its initial rocket launch earlier this year. SpaceX has already sold a rocket launch to Las Vegas, Nevada based space technology start-up company, Bigelow Aerospace's planned private space station.

"When commercial enterprise turns the journey into low-Earth orbit into a profit-making business, NASA will be free to focus on goals more appropriate for government, such as exploration," said Scott Horowitz, the agency's associate administrator for exploration.

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http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/08/18/Navigation/177/208518/NASA+announces+Commercial+Orbital+Transportation+Services+demonstration+programme.html

NASA announces Commercial Orbital Transportation Services demonstration programme winners

by Rob Coppinger
California based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Oklahoma's Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK) have won funded space act agreements (SAA) and will have $485 million split between them for the four-year phase one of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme.

By 2010 COTS will see the companies demonstrate capabilities to provide cargo and possibly crew transportation to the International Space Station
(ISS) into the next decade. SpaceX has won a $278 million SAA and RpK a £207 million agreement. The companies have also raised private financing to supplement the NASA funding. An SAA is an agreement for a private company to use NASA facilities and to work with the US space agency's personnel. The SAA money will be paid out in milestones linked to design reviews, testing readiness and eventually test flights.

Snip

“These companies were selected from a total of 20 applicants, based on solid engineering of innovative concepts and sound business plans,” says NASA commercial crew and cargo programme office manager Alan Lindenmoyer. He added that he expects the two companies to exploit other markets such as orbital space tourism.

Snip

In COTS phase one the companies will have to demonstrate four capabilities, unpressurised cargo delivery and disposal; pressurised cargo delivery and disposal; internal cargo delivery and return; and an option for crew transportation. Then in phase two NASA plans to purchase these services competitively. It has informed the two winning companies it will be asking for supply of 5t of unpressurised cargo and 7t of pressurised cargo to the ISS. The second phase could see a crew transport system developed.

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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14411983/
SpaceX, Rocketplane win spaceship contest
$485 million to be doled out for new ways to resupply space station

By Alan Boyle
Science editor
MSNBC
Updated: 5:13 p.m. MT Aug 18, 2006

Snip

The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, marks a dramatic departure in the way NASA does business and could give a boost to the nascent private-sector space race — including space tourism for paying passengers.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin acknowledged earlier this week that the program could also turn out to be a $500 million flop. "If it doesn’t work, I’ve frankly made the wrong bet … with a good amount of money that we could have used for other purposes if the entrepreneurial sector is, in fact, not able to step up," he told Space.com.

Snip

Two approaches to funding spaceships
In the past, NASA has funded the entire development cost for creating spaceships for human spaceflight, ranging from Mercury capsules to space shuttles. This approach is still being used for the development of the main successor to the space shuttle fleet, known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle or CEV. Two teams, led by Lockheed Martin on one side and Northrop Grumman and Boeing on the other, are vying for that multibillion-dollar project — and NASA is expected to announce the winner of the CEV contract sometime in the next couple of months.

COTS is different in that NASA will be merely "investing" in projects primarily supported by the private sector, with quarterly payments made as the development teams reach technical and financial milestones through the end of 2009. The final milestones call for three test flights, including an unmanned flight to the space station itself, said Alan Lindenmoyer, commercial crew/cargo project manager at NASA.

The spaceships developed with NASA's support could well help fill the gap between the scheduled 2010 retirement of the shuttle fleet and the start of CEV flights in the 2012-2014 time frame.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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