A Close Look at NASA's Outsourcing of International Space Station Resupply to SpaceX and Orbital January 25, 2009
Posted by Nick Azer in : Int'l Space Station, NASA , 4comments
On December 23rd, NASA awarded two lucrative contracts ($1.6 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively) to private space companies SpaceX (recently the first company to launch a private rocket into orbit, a major milestone) and Orbital to take over resupply of the International Space Station. This represents a huge early step in what will be a defining trend of space policy in the next decade, and something that U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama has talked about: the “amplifying”" of ” NASA’s reach” via the private sector, spurring both NASA’s effectiveness and the (potentially explosive) private space industry’s growth (and its role in a recovering American economy).
To this point, cargo resupply of the ISS has been handled by the U.S. Space Shuttle, Russian Progress freighter spacecraft, and the unmanned European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle resupply craft. With a lot of private space companies looking at the Moon (including, eventually, SpaceX itself), this contract is a Falcon 9-sized boost for both their profile and potential across the board, whether they have their sights set on low Earth orbit, the lunar surface, or elsewhere.
SpaceX’s Dragon craft (to be launched via the Falcon 9 rocket), pictured at top, is a versatile craft that can carry pressurized or unpressurized cargo (as this ISS contract is for), or be configured to carry up to seven crew members. Check out the official data sheet PDF for all the technical skinny (a spectacularly well-designed document, as is usual from SpaceX). SpaceX itself was founded back in 2002 by Paypal‘s co-founder, Elon Musk, and while currently focusing on low-earth-orbit services, has its eye on eventual lunar missions.
Eventually, SpaceX could also be given a contract/option for crewed missions to the ISS, which could prove a crucial detail in the wake of the 2010 retirement of the Space Shuttle and resulting ‘shuttle gap’ between it and the Orion, scheduled to be ready in 2015. Currently the plan is for the U.S. to buy Russian Soyuz craft or potentially extend the Shuttle, though back in September an Orlando Sentinel article notes Barack Obama noted having commerical flights help close the gap as an option. On a related (and intruiging) note, the SpaceX contract could actually create 1,000 jobs for the Space Coast, something the area will need in the wake of the Shuttle retirement.
The other company awarded a contract (which is actually initially larger than SpaceX’s) is Orbital Sciences Corp., an established veteran in the manufacture, management, and launch of small-to-medium payloads (namely, a wide variety of satellites, including both military and commercial) with a deep involvement in missile defense.
Since the announcement in December, there has been a delay as far as the official status of the contracts: as reported by Reuters, a third contender for the contracts has filed a complaint about the awards–Chicago-based PlanetSpace, a partnership between Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Alliant (ATK) (the first two of which already supply launch rockets to the U.S. military space program, and the latter of which is doing work on NASA’s Ares I crew launch rocket). The complaint lodged to the Government Accountability Office states that PlanetSpace felt they had a better offer for the contract, and they should inseatd recieve one of the awards; the GAO stated that it will have a ruling on the complaint by April 29th.
Interesting side note about PlanetSpace: while their site and their background only notes low-earth-orbit projects, the Moon is featured distinctly in the opening intro animation…another major lunar player on the rise?
Picture of the Week: So You's Comfortable In There? October 14, 2008
Posted by Nick Azer in : Int'l Space Station, Orion (craft), Picture of the Week, Russia, Soyuz, space tourism , add a comment
That is the interior of the Russian Soyuz craft, that is currently in the news for carrying the 6th space tourist, video game developer (and son of an astronaut) Richard Garriott, to the International Space Station for a few weeks (a trip that has it’s own web site).
The Soyuz, once the space shuttle is retired in 2010, will actually be the vehicle American astronauts will have to hitch a ride on (or, as appears to be the case now, the craft NASA will be buying from he Russians for our use) to get to the ISS and into space in general until the development of the Orion craft is completed.
For more on space tourism, check out Space.com’s whole section on it.
NASA Gets a Buzz: Aldrin Speaks Out on the New Space Race (News) June 30, 2008
Posted by Nick Azer in : Current News, Int'l Space Station, McCain, Obama, Soyuz , add a commentThe Telegraph has interviewed Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon and outspoken advocate of moon colonization, with some interesting results.
“To me it’s abysmal that it has come to this: after 50 years of Nasa, and after putting about $100 billion into the space station, we can’t get our own astronauts to our space station without relying on the Russians.”
-Buzz Aldrin, on the U.S. having to hitch rides on the Russian Soyuz to reach the ISS
Buzz appeals for the next U.S. President to embrace the Vision for Space Exploration (John McCain did so earlier this month) and expressed concern that the U.S. was already falling behind. Last month, according to the interview article, NASA’s Constellation head Rick Gilbrecht “that Chinese astronauts were on schedule to get to the moon by 2017 or 2018″ (on a manned mission to being work on a base), a good two or three years faster than the U.S. He also criticizes the lack of investment in commercial efforts, and NASA’s lack of encouragement of tourist-effort-friendly technologies and policies.
As far as concern over getting to the Moon again before China (as opposed to concern over them actually building a base first), I think it’s not really that significant a loss if China puts men/women on the Moon before we do in this century. Getting a base up first would be nice, yes, but nitpicking (for its own sake) on actually setting foot on Luna again first is probably excessive. We already own the record, and whoever comes along next isn’t that important; though, Aldrin’s concern could be primarily that it would mark the beginning of a trend.
Or, perhaps China getting back to the moon first would do us some good, pinch us out of our sleep. A little kick in the rear might light that patriotic fire is us again (and yes, that’s Buzz himself in that last link).
In the meantime, it should be interesting to keep an eye on what ol’ Buzz continues to do in his quest of advocacy…
