Fwd: 3 Private Spaceflight Companies Will Ferry Cargo to Space Station

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: January 15, 2016 at 12:06:04 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: 3 Private Spaceflight Companies Will Ferry Cargo to Space Station

NASA

Jan. 14, 2016

16-007

 

NASA Awards International Space Station Cargo Transport Contracts

 

NASA has awarded three cargo contracts to ensure the critical science, research and technology demonstrations that are informing the agency's journey to Mars are delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2019 through 2024. The agency unveiled its selection of Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia; Sierra Nevada Corporation of Sparks, Nevada; and SpaceX of Hawthorne, California to continue building on the initial resupply partnerships with two American companies.

 

These Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-2) contracts are designed to obtain cargo delivery services to the space station, disposal of unneeded cargo, and the return of research samples and other cargo from the station back to NASA. 

 

"Few would have imagined back in 2010 when President Barack Obama pledged that NASA would work 'with a growing array of private companies competing to make getting to space easier and more affordable,' that less than six years later we'd be able to say commercial carriers have transported 35,000 pounds of space cargo (and counting!) to the International Space Station -- or that we'd be so firmly on track to return launches of American astronauts to the ISS from American soil on American commercial carriers. But that is exactly what is happening," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "Today's announcement is a big deal that will move the president's vision further into the future."

 

The contracts, which begin upon award, guarantee a minimum of six cargo resupply missions from each provider. The contracts also include funding ISS integration, flight support equipment, special tasks and studies, and NASA requirement changes.

 

"The second generation of commercial cargo services to low-Earth orbit begins today," said Kirk Shireman, ISS Program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "By engaging American companies for cargo transportation, we can focus our attention on using this one-of-a-kind laboratory in the sky to continue advancing scientific knowledge for the benefit of all humanity."

 

Selecting multiple providers assures access to ISS so crew members can continue to conduct the vital research of the National Lab. Awarding multiple contracts provides more options and reduces risk through a variety of launch options and mission types, providing the ISS program a robust portfolio of cargo services that will be necessary to maximize the utility of the station.

 

NASA has not yet ordered any missions, but will make a total of six selections from each menu of mission options at fixed prices, as needed. Each task order has milestones with specified amounts and performance dates. Each mission requires complex preparation and several years of lead time. Discussions and engineering assessments will begin soon, leading to integration activities later this year to ensure all space station requirements are met, with the first missions beginning in late 2019.

 

"These resupply flights will be conducted in parallel with our Commercial Crew Program providers' flights that enable addition of a seventh astronaut to the International Space Station. This will double the amount of crew time to conduct research," said Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the ISS Program. "These missions will be vital for delivering the experiments and investigations that will enable NASA and our partners to continue this important research."

 

The agency applied knowledge gained from the first commercial resupply contracts with Orbital ATK and SpaceX and required a number of key enhancements for these contracts. This includes starting with a requirement for a minimum of six missions as opposed to delivery of metric tons; a variety of delivery, return and disposal capabilities for both pressurized and unpressurized cargo, as well as an optional accelerated return; and the addition of an insurance requirement to cover damage to government property during launch services, reentry services or transportation to, from, in proximity of, or docking with the space station.

 

While the maximum potential value of all contracts is $14 billion from 2016 through 2024, NASA will order missions, as needed, and the total prices paid under the contract will depend on which mission types are ordered.

 

"We plan to order services based on our current estimates of station needs, which provides NASA important flexibility to maximize the use of the space station," said Shireman. "We look forward to beginning work with these new contractors to understand the details of the services that they have proposed and understand the details of how these services will benefit ISS. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract enables us to adjust as necessary for additional missions or contingencies so we can provide the greatest benefits possible from this great international asset."

 

NASA's service contracts to resupply the space station have changed the way the agency does business in low-Earth orbit. With these contracts, NASA continues to advance commercial spaceflight and the American jobs it creates.

 

For 15 years, humans have been living continuously aboard the space station to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that also will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space. A truly global endeavor, more than 200 people from 15 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 1,700 research investigations from researchers in more than 83 countries. For more information on the space station and its crew members, visit:

 

http://www.nasa.gov/station

 

For breaking news and features, follow the International Space Station on Twitter at:

 

https://twitter.com/Space_Station

 

-end-

 

Cheryl Warner/Stephanie Schierholz

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1100

cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov, stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

 

Dan Huot

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

daniel.g.huot@nasa.gov

Last Updated: Jan. 14, 2016

Editor: Karen Northon

 

 

 

Spaceflight Now

 

NASA splits space station cargo deal three ways

January 14, 2016 by Stephen Clark

Updated with quotes and details after NASA press conference.

 

The Dream Chaser spaceship, originally conceived to carry astronauts, can deliver up to 12,000 pounds — 5,500 kilograms — to the space station per trip, then detach and return to Earth for a runway landing like the space shuttle.

 

Sierra Nevada's lifting body spacecraft has never flown in orbit, and the company aims to drop the craft from a helicopter for an approach and landing demonstration in the coming months.

 

NASA's current cargo transportation providers, SpaceX and Orbital ATK, also received new contracts Thursday, giving the space station three U.S. resupply carriers operating alongside Russia's Progress logistics freighter and Japan's HTV cargo ship.

 

The cargo flights covered by the new agreements will begin in 2019, and the contracts have options for missions extending through 2024, the space station's current projected retirement date.

 

NASA signed the agency's previous commercial cargo contracts with SpaceX and Orbital ATK in December 2008, and those Commercial Resupply Services — or CRS-1 — agreements have been extended to meet the space station's supply needs through 2018.

 

The space agency turned to commercial providers to haul supplies to the space station after the retirement of the space shuttle, and NASA plans to debut new commercially-owned crew capsules developed Boeing and SpaceX to transport astronauts to and from the orbiting research lab in 2017.

 

NASA officials said Thursday they chose three companies to expand their options when routing experiments, crew provisions and other hardware between Earth and the space station.

 

"One of the considerations from an operational standpoint with ISS is it's really important to have more than one supply chain, and mulitple offerers means that at any given time, the sequence of flights could be one Sierra Nevada, Space, Orbital ATK, so if you lose one, you have the ability for another one being right after it from a dissimilar redundancy, or a different supplier, so that's a big help to us," said Kirk Shireman, NASA's International Space Station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Orbital ATK and SpaceX had launch failures in October 2014 and June 2015, grounding their Cygnus and Dragon supply ships for months. Orbital ATK purchased two United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flights to keep flying the Cygnus spacecraft while the company's Antares booster is grounded.

 

SpaceX has resumed flying its Falcon 9 rocket after its launch mishap, and the next Dragon cargo mission to the space station is scheduled for no sooner than March, nine months after last year's failure.

 

Sam Scimemi, director of the space station's division office at NASA Headquarters, said the agency learned lessons from the first round of cargo contracts cinched in 2008.

 

"It has not been easy by any measure," Scimemi said. "Both our CRS-1 providers have experienced launch failures and are in the process of recovering. NASA and our industry partners have learned valuable lessons from these failures and the recovery to flight."

 

SpaceX and Orbital ATK have carried a combined 35,000 pounds of gear to the space station since commercial flights to the outpost began in 2012, Scimemi said.

 

The fresh cargo contracts, which go into effect immediately, have an aggregate value of up to $14 billion. Tenets of the deals allow NASA to order additional missions beyond each company's six guaranteed flights as needed until the total cost reaches $14 billion, and Shireman said the space station's actual cargo requirements will almost certainly fall short of the cap.

 

NASA can procure the add-on cargo flights based on price, capability, past performance and other factors.

 

"The contract has a minimum of six missions per selectee, so in that sense, everyone is going to get the minimum," Shireman said. "It is likely we will buy more than 18 flights, so we have three winners, and if we need more than 18 flights, then we'll talk about what happens on those flights."

 

NASA did not disclose the value of each contractor's base award for six cargo missions, but Orbital ATK said in a press release its six initial flights are valued at $1.2-$1.5 billion. Sierra Nevada and SpaceX did not provide financial figures for their agreements.

 

In a change from the previous cargo contracts, NASA requested bidders to offer different types of mission scenarios to give space station managers flexibility in ordering a cargo flight to match the needs of the moment.

 

Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft currently primarily launches aboard the company's internally-developed Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. Company leaders billed the switch to ULA's Atlas 5 as a temporary fix while the Antares booster prepares to resume launches later this year.

 

According to Shireman, Orbital ATK submitted a proposal offering three types of mission — two with delivery and disposal of pressurized cargo like food, spare parts and small experiments, and one to take up and get rid of large units and instruments mounted outside the space station. NASA can also decide whether they want to launch the missions aboard Orbital ATK's Antares rocket from Virginia or ULA's Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 

"By utilizing the flexibility of our Cygnus spacecraft, combined with a mixed fleet of launch vehicles, Orbital ATK is providing NASA a complete portfolio of mission options to fulfill their cargo delivery needs," said Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital ATK's space systems group.

 

Sierra Nevada outlined two mission scenarios, both with the ability to haul internal and external cargo to the space station, dispose of trash, and return supplies to the Earth intact inside the Dream Chaser's pressurized compartment.

 

NASA has the option for the Dream Chaser to directly dock to the space station or be captured with the lab's robotic arm. Each technique has benefits, with dockings permitting the space plane to reboost the space station's orbit, while the capture and berth method allows astronauts to transfer equipment through a larger hatch on the outpost's Harmony or Unity modules.

 

The Dream Chaser will launch on ULA's Atlas 5 rocket, employing the launcher's 500-series configuration with a 5.4-meter (17.7-foot) fairing.

 

Shireman said SpaceX's bid included options, too.

 

Like the Dream Chaser, SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship could dock or be grasped by the space station's robotic arm, he said. SpaceX also proposed landings of the Dragon cargo capsule in the ocean or on land.

 

"We're going to decide which type of mission do we need at any given time," Shireman told reporters Thursday. "Price will be a factor, but it's only one of many, many factors. It's not like going and buying gas from a gas station, where you just find the cheapest one and go buy it. It's much more complicated than that."

 

Shireman said the new crop of upgraded cargo carriers will deliver heavier loads to the space station than existing U.S. commercial vehicles.

 

"The CRS-2 vehicles allow the delivery of a larger amount of cargo in a single flight," Shireman said. "Basically, it reduces the total number of missions. That's important for a couple of reasons. One is it's more efficient in terms of our crew time, and that's a precious resource aboard the ISS. When the crew is unpacking and repacking cargo, that's time they're not spending doing the research."

 

 

CBS News

By William Harwood CBS News January 14, 2016, 6:55 PM

 

Winged "Dream Chaser" joins space station cargo fleet

 

SpaceX and Orbital ATK will continue to provide unpiloted cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station under a new round of commercial contracts extending through 2024, NASA managers announced Thursday. But Sierra Nevada's winged "Dream Chaser" spacecraft will join the fleet, launching atop Atlas 5 rockets and robotically gliding to a runway landing like NASA's now-retired space shuttle.

 

The Dream Chaser will allow researchers to gain access to biological samples and other materials returning from space within a few hours of touchdown, a high priority for station researchers.

 

SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which currently splashes down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angles, will be upgraded to touch down on land as required under the new contract, officials said, offering equally speedy offloads of high-priority science cargo.

 

Orbital ATK's Cygnus capsules are not designed to return through Earth's atmosphere and instead burn up during re-entry, carrying away unwanted trash and equipment as needed. But Orbital, unlike SpaceX and Sierra Nevada, will be able to launch to the station from Virginia or the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to provide additional flexibility.

 

Kirk Shireman, space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said each of the companies will be awarded a minimum of six missions and possibly more based on downstream station requirements. Initial flights are expected to begin in late 2019.

 

No actual flights have been ordered yet, and Shireman said he could not break down the cost per contract because of the wide variety of mission scenarios under development.

 

They key feature of the second round of Commercial Resupply Services contracts -- CRS-2 -- is flexibility, he said. The contract is structured so NASA can order a mix of vehicles and mission profiles that best suits the current needs of the station while delivering more cargo per flight and offering faster post-flight access to research samples and equipment.

 

The new, more capable cargo vehicles will enable the station to keep enough supplies on board to support seven full-time crew members -- one more than the lab currently supports -- allowing more time for research.

 

All three cargo craft will be able to carry between 2.5 and 5 metric tons of equipment and supplies to the space station and carry an equal amount away, either for return to Earth or to help station crews get rid of unneeded packing material, trash and other unwanted gear.

 

Orbital ATK will offer three mission profiles and launch from both Virginia, using the company's Antares rockets, and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, using United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 boosters. Two of the three mission profiles will deliver pressurized cargo to the station while one will be devoted to unpressurized components.

 

In all three cases, Orbital's Cygnus capsules will be berthed at the station's Earth-facing ports, pulled into place by the lab's robot arm.

 

Sierra Nevada is offering two mission profiles, one to deliver and carry away pressurized cargo and one to deliver and carry off unpressurized equipment. The Dream Chaser will be able to autonomously dock at station's forward or upper port or, like the Cygnus, be pulled in for berthing by the station's arm at one of the lab's larger lower ports.

 

SpaceX will follow suit, offering docking and berthing capability and two primary mission profiles for pressurized and unpressurized cargo.

 

The berthing hatches are much wider than the docking ports, allowing large components to be moved into or out of the station.

 

The commercial resupply program was set up by NASA in the wake of the 2003 Columbia disaster to replace lost cargo capability after the shuttle fleet's retirement in 2011. In December 2008, NASA announced that SpaceX and Orbital had won the initial CRS-1 contracts.

 

NASA later ordered additional flights to bridge the gap between the CRS-1 and CRS-2 contracts.

 

SpaceX launched its first operational space station resupply flight on Oct. 8, 2012. Five more flights were successfully launched before a catastrophic failure last June that destroyed the seventh operational Dragon and along with it, several tons of station-bound equipment and supplies.

 

The mishap was blamed on an internal strut that broke away inside the Falcon 9's second stage liquid oxygen tank, triggering a spectacular in-flight breakup. After extensive modifications, the company successfully launched a Falcon 9 on a commercial satellite-launching mission late last month and plans to launch a NASA science satellite this Sunday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

 

After another commercial satellite launch in February, SpaceX plans to resume space station cargo missions around March 20, sources say.

 

Orbital ATK launched its first resupply mission on Jan. 9, 2014. A second mission was successfully launched six months later, but the company's third flight ended in a dramatic explosion seconds after liftoff in October 2014. The failure was blamed on a turbopump in the Russian-built engines powering the first stage of the Antares booster.

 

Orbital currently is upgrading the Antares rocket with new engines. In the meantime, the company purchased two Atlas 5 rockets from United Launch Alliance to boost two Cygnus cargo ships to the station before the Antares returns to flight. The first mission was successfully launched last month and the second is planned for launch March 10.

 

"Our CRS-1 commercial providers have delivered over 35,000 pounds of research, crew and maintenance hardware to the space station," said Sam Scimemi, ISS Division director at NASA Headquarters. "It has not been easy by any measure. Both our CRS-1 providers have experienced launch failures and are in the process of recovery. NASA and our industry partners have learned valuable lessons from these failures."

 

To replace the lost crew capability of the space shuttle, NASA awarded two contracts for the commercial development and operation of crew capsules to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.

 

Boeing holds a $4.2 billion contract for the company's CST-100 crew capsule, which will be launched atop Atlas 5 rockets. SpaceX won a $2.6 billion contract for development of a piloted version of its Dragon cargo ship that will be launched atop the company's Falcon 9.

 

Sierra Nevada had hoped to win a share of the commercial crew contract, but NASA managers ultimately decided to press ahead with Boeing and SpaceX.

 

Sierra Nevada managers never gave up hope of flying a variant of the Dream Chaser to the space station, however, and the contract announced Thursday puts the winged orbiter back on the road to space.

 

"SNC is honored to be selected by NASA for this critical U.S. program," Eren Ozmen, president of Sierra Nevada Corporation, said in a company statement. "In such a major competition, we are truly humbled by the show of confidence in SNC and look forward to successfully demonstrating the extensive capabilities of the Dream Chaser spacecraft to the world."

 

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

3 Private Spaceflight Companies Will Ferry Cargo to Space Station

by Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer   |   January 14, 2016 07:17pm ET

 

NASA has selected SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corp. to fly cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2019, the agency announced today (Jan 14).

 

Between 2019 and 2024, NASA will purchase a minimum of six uncrewed cargo missions from each of the three companies, agency officials said in a media briefing today. The space agency has the option to purchase additional re-supply missions from any of the three providers, and will likely do so, said Kirk Shireman, program manager for the ISS.

 

SpaceX and Orbital ATK were selected as cargo providers in NASA's first round of Commercial Resupply Services contracts, known as CRS1; both companies have flown multiple re-supply missions to the ISS using a capsule called Dragon (SpaceX) and a spacecraft named Cygnus (Orbital ATK). [Space Station's Robotic Cargo Ship Fleet: A Photo Guide]

 

The new round of contracts is referred to as CRS2. Dragon and Cygnus will keep flying in the CRS2 missions, but Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser will join them. This space plane is capable of landing on a runway, as NASA's now-retired space shuttles did; this ability will provide some unique science opportunities, NASA officials said.

 

Shireman said the details of why these three candidates were selected will be released soon. At least two other companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, had submitted proposals for the CRS2 contract as well. NASA officials did not say how much each mission would cost, but Shireman said the maximum total value of all the CRS2 contracts is $14 billion. This number, however, was set as part of a government requirement, Shireman said, adding that the actual cost of "the mix of flights that we're looking at will be nowhere near that value."

 

SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada will each offer NASA slightly different cargo mission capabilities, Shireman said. Options from those companies include pressurized or unpressurized cargo (the former can support living scientific samples), return-cargo vehicles that either burn up in the atmosphere (Cygnus) or return to Earth for retrieval (Dragon and Dream Chaser), and vehicles that can either dock directly with the station or be grappled and berthed using the orbiting lab's robotic arm. (Berthing ports have larger openings for larger cargo, NASA officials said.)

 

Dragon and Dream Chaser both return to Earth after each mission is done. However, Dragon experiences "hard landings," which usually mean parachuting straight down into the ocean, whereas Dream Chaser will land more gently on a runway.

 

Runway landings tend to have a lower physical impact on the return cargo, and they allow for something called "accelerated pressurized return," which means the cargo can be retrieved within 3 to 6 hours after landing, said Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the ISS.

 

This is beneficial for experiments that include live animals or other living samples, Robinson added. When scientists want to test the effects of gravity on biological samples, for example, it is often crucial to examine the samples as soon as they return to Earth, before they start to readapt to gravity, Robinson said. In addition, gentle landings can be better for preserving delicate samples, such as crystals grown in microgravity.

 

Both Orbital ATK and SpaceX suffered launch failures during NASA CRS1 missions in the last 15 months, resulting in the loss of NASA cargo intended for the orbiting outpost. Orbital's Antares rocket exploded shortly after pushing off the launch pad in October 2014, and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket disintegrated just over 2 minutes after liftoff in June 2015.

 

Those setbacks did not pose a threat to the lives of the crewmembers aboard the station. But NASA officials said that having a third cargo supplier available was a factor in its CRS2 decision.

 

"One of the considerations from an operational standpoint on the ISS, it's really important to have more than one supply chain," Shireman said. "If you lose one, you have the ability for another one being [implemented] right after it from a similar redundancy or a similar supplier."

 

SpaceX, along with Boeing, has also been selected by NASA to supply crew transportation to the orbiting outpost, with the first astronaut-taxi flights beginning as early as 2017.

 

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