Commercial Spaceflight Federation Press Release
During this week’s hearing of the White House Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, members of the Committee expressed broad support for expanding the role of commercial spaceflight for delivery of cargo and crew to the International Space Station.
MIT professor Ed Crawley, a member of the Committee, stated during the August 12th public hearing that there is a strong consensus among the Committee that the government should support a vigorous program of developing commercial crew transportation, in addition to the existing COTS program for commercial cargo to the Space Station.
Also during the hearing, astronaut Sally Ride presented a summary slide listing “commercial crew capability to LEO” as an “important component” for future NASA human space flight programs, and said, “we need to get NASA out of the business of getting crew” to Earth orbit.
Committee chairman Norm Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, stated in an interview published yesterday on Space.com, “I’ve always believed there was a great commercial role in the unmanned arena, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think that applies to the human arena as well.”
These pronouncements, especially when combined with the newly announced NASA CCDev program for design and development of commercial crew spaceflight concepts, show that commercial crew is now being seen as a critical part of US human spaceflight.
Shortly after the Augustine Committee was first convened, members of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation submitted a policy paper to the Augustine Committee recommending that NASA expand the strategy of the existing Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program for cargo, by investing in a similar program for commercial crewed spacecraft:
- Ensure vibrant competition through multiple awards – Provide significant funding to support the earliest possible competitive development and demonstration of multiple U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities.
- Leverage outside investment to reduce risk – Require private sector investment so that commercial companies “have skin in the game.”
- Milestone-based payments for demonstrated performance – Utilize firm-fixed-price Space Act Agreements that pay for performance upon successful completion of program milestones.
- Commitment to purchase services from the winners – Guarantee a minimum purchase of flights for resulting commercial spaceflight services following successful demonstration of vehicle capabilities.
Ultimately, an expanded commercial spaceflight sector will support full utilization of the Space Station, free up NASA resources for exploration, jump start private activity in low Earth orbit that will further lower the cost of access to space, and unleash the economic potential of space long promised.
Similar Posts:
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nearly everything the Augustine Commission is saying is (simply) NOT TRUE !!!
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it’s NOT TRUE that they have evaluated ALL possible options but just a few! (and bad!)
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it’s NOT TRUE that there are only 7-8 possible scenarios (despite they are too much for a report written by “experts”!) but many more! (and better!)
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it’s NOT TRUE that NASA must kill and deorbit the ISS to have enough money for the Moon!
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it’s NOT TRUE that NASA needs $3 Bn of extra funds per years for Constellation! (this level of funds is necessary only to continue the development of the over-expensive Ares-1) despite, more funds, are good, if NOT “burned” with things like the Ares-1, Ares-5, SRB-5 and J-2X !!!
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it’s NOT TRUE that NASA could launch the Orion in orbit only in 2017-2019 ! (this is true only if the want to build and use the bad Ares-1)
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it’s NOT TRUE that NASA must slip the next Moon landing to 2028 since it’s only an over exaggerated claim to convince the W.H. to give more funds for the bad Ares-1 !!!
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it’s NOT TRUE that things like the RESIZED-Ares-5-called-Direct or the old Shuttle-C/HLV or the (bad, wrong, crazy and expensive) “orbital refuels” are “viable options” to be considered!!! (or, at least, to be considered now for the orbital refuel)
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it’s NOT TRUE that a Moon mission can be accomplished with today’s (very weak) EELVs! (surely, not a Moon mission with heavy vehicles like the Orion!)
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it’s NOT TRUE that the new.space industry can replace now the Shuttle or help soon NASA to go to the Moon! if they will be LUCKY if the new.space companies will be able to safely carry small cargo to the ISS within 4-6 years and launch a manned capsule to orbit in the not earlier than 6-8 years!
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it’s NOT TRUE that it’s impossible or too expensive to start develop a Mars mission now! (despite, build the full hardware could cost very much if we want to accomplish a real mission)
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it’s really INCREDIBLE that a commission made of “ten space experts” has worked over TWO months for NOTHING !!!
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if Barack Obama and the W.H. science teams will consider the A.C. advices as true, they will decide LOTS of very bad and wrong things!!!
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