Excalibur Almaz is one of eight companies invited by NASA to further discuss their proposals for the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, Space News reports. NASA plans to award $200 million in funding next month.

Space News reports:

Excalibur Almaz Inc., an Isle of Man-based firm developing a crewed system incorporating flown Soviet-era space hardware designs, also has received a written invitation to meet with NASA officials to discuss its CCDev proposal, according to the company’s president, former astronaut Leroy Chiao. “We are honored to have this opportunity,” Chiao told Space News Feb. 24.

Traditionally, a callback is no guarantee of an award. NASA also can issue an award without calling a company to come in to discuss their proposal.

The other seven companies are ATK, Blue Origin, Boeing, Orbital Sciences Corp., Sierra Nevada Corp., SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.

Manx Radio has a brief interview with Leroy Chaio of Excalibur Almaz in which he describes the Isle of Man-based company’s plans for two space stations that it recently brought over from Russia:

“It’s hard to say at this point, because currently our business plan does not include using the space stations. But, basically to purchase these assets so that if in the future it does make sense to refurbish and launch the space stations, then we have these assets that can be used. So, at the moment, we don’t have a firm time table of how long these assets will be stored here and what the plan will be with them in the future.”

Sounds like they don’t have any clients or funding at the moment. It will be interesting to see how this space station project — and others — progress as NASA gets going on its commercial space transport program. The prospect for viable commercial space station and LEO transport markets would help several of the companies with fund raising and marketing.

An Almaz space station module being transported on the Isle of Man. (Credit: Excalibur Almaz)

EA PRESS RELEASE

Excalibur Almaz Limited (EA), the international commercial space exploration company, is exporting two partially completed Almaz space stations from Russia to the IOM today. The stations and Excalibur Almaz’ reusable return vehicles were developed by EA’s Russian associate, JSC MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia.

The stations will be initially stored, followed by research, testing and possibly completion and launch to orbit. EA’s initial flights to orbit will be in the flight tested Excalibur Almaz Reusable Return Vehicles joined to and supported by service module living and working habitats. The space stations themselves are part of EA’s long-term business plan. It is not economically feasible to launch and sustain them on orbit until the company’s flight rate reaches six or more flights per year. In addition to space tourism, the updated space stations could provide platforms for microgravity scientific experimentation to serve governments and academic institutions.

EA Founder and CEO Art Dula said, “This is another significant landmark towards achieving our stated goals with continuing technical support from leading
aerospace firms in the US, Europe and Japan.”

“We’re very excited at this latest development involving Excalibur Almaz,” said Tim Craine, Director of the Isle of Man Government’s Business Development Agency. “Bringing the two Almaz Space Stations to the Island is a further exciting development and evidence of the Island’s growing profile and reputation in the space world.”

The Almaz space stations are approximately 11 meters long and four meters in diameter; and are directly related to the module design used on the International Space Station as well as the earlier Russian Salyut and Mir space stations. Other unique features of the Almaz stations include the largest window ever developed for a spacecraft, boasting over two meters of panoramic view of the Earth and stars.

About the Almaz program:

EA has ownership of several Almaz spacecraft, including reusable reentry vehicles (RRVs) and space stations. EA will tailor space missions to
accommodate customer objectives including exploration, cargo transportation and experimentation. On selected missions, spacecraft and space stations would provide platforms for microgravity scientific experiments, potentially serving the needs of governments and academic institutions.

EA’s spacecraft will consist of two parts: an RRV and an expendable service module to provide crew members with room to comfortably operate during
spaceflight. EA will update the Almaz RRVs with flight-proven technologies where appropriate, while retaining tested legacy systems to ensure safety and
economy of operation. A critical feature of the RRVs is their reusability, which will reduce logistical, overhead and program costs for commercial access to space.

EA plans for its spacecraft to be compatible with a number of launch vehicles and capable of being launched from worldwide sites.

In addition to NPOM, leading aerospace firms contracting with EA include Space Flight Operations (SFO), a subsidiary of United Space Alliance, of the U.S.; Paragon Space Development Corporation of the U.S.; Qwaltec of the U.S., and Japan Manned Space Systems (JAMSS) of Japan. EA has also formed strategic alliances with academic institutions including Rice University of the U.S and the International Space University of France, and is an Industry Forum member of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute of the U.S.

About Excalibur Almaz:

Excalibur Almaz’s mission is to become the world leader in providing reliable, affordable and routine access to space for exploration, experimentation, and tourism for customers around the world. EA plans to accomplish this by leveraging proven flight tested products and systems from US, European, and Russian space programs to create value, reduce costs and reduce development time.

For more information contact Rob Lazaro at media@excaliburalmaz.com.

A bit more information on the Sea Launch bankruptcy reorganization – which includes Excalibur Alaz (which is planning to launch a space station) and U.S.-based PlanetSpace:

Excalibur Almaz and PlanetSpace are working to provide exit financing through Space Launch Services, LLC (“SLS LLC”), as well as equity investment in a reorganized Sea Launch, for the purpose of sustaining reliable commercial access to space. SLS LLC is led by Bohdan (Bo) Bejmuk, an aerospace consultant with in-depth knowledge of space systems and launch vehicles. In parallel with its focus on the reorganization process, Sea Launch successfully completed the launch of the Intelsat 15 satellite on November 30, on a Zenit-3SLB vehicle from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. This is Sea Launch’s fourth and final launch campaign of 2009.

Excalibur Almaz, based in the Isle of Man, is planning to launch a commercial space station using refurbished Soviet-era hardware. Taking a stake in Sea Launch would give the company access to Zenit rockets that can be launched from land and sea.

PlanetSpace is based in Chicago and includes Lockheed Martin, ATK Space Systems, Boeing, and Astrotech as partners. The company has unsuccessfully bid to provide commercial space transportation services to the International Space Station under NASA’s COTS program using ATK’s Athena boosters.

PlanetSpace also is developing an orbital hypersonic vehicle designed to fly autonomously and with human crews:

The Silver Dart is an autonomous and flexible hypersonic glider designed to operate as an orbital vehicle. It extends the capabilities of the booster to provide access to LEO. It is designed to double as an unmanned or manned spacecraft and can provide for a long duration platform in orbit. Based on the FDL-7 design which is stable in flight from Mach 22 to 0, the Silver Dart has the glide range of 25,000 miles (one earth circumference) with a cross range of over 4,000 miles. Such a glide performance provides for departure from any LEO and landing in the continental US with no wait time on orbit. An all metal thermal protection system allows for all weather flying. Combined, the thermal protection system and glide range result in a reentry vehicle that cannot be trapped in space and is able to return to base from any orbit around the Earth.

Very interesting developments that I’ll keep an eye on.

Isle of Man Today has an interesting story about how one astronaut and two cosmonauts have laid down Cold Era rivalries to work for Excalibur Almaz – a commercial company that is using old Soviet hardware to launch space tourists into orbit.

The space veterans include NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, a veteran of three Shuttle missions and one Soyuz mission; Colonel Valery Tokarev, a Russian Air Force test pilot and cosmonaut; and Colonel Vladimir Titov, the first man to spend a full year in space.

The space race began as another front in the Cold War but Colonel Titov prefers not to talk of rivalries between the Soviet Union and the USA.

‘We are Planet Earth Team,’ he says.

Excalibur Almaz is not the only company promising private enterprise space flights to private individuals but it does appear to have leapt ahead of its rivals by purchasing, as Dr Chiao puts it ‘heritage hardware’.

Other companies starting from scratch will have to spend years developing and testing spacecraft whereas Excalibur Almaz has four capsules and two space stations that are tried and tested.

Read the full story.

Space experts attend launch of exciting Manx project
Iomtoday

Astronaut Dr Leroy Chiao and cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Titov were among a number of experienced space experts at the press launch of the Excalibur Almaz space project held at King William’s College on Saturday.

Dr Leroy Chiao is a veteran of three Shuttle missions and one Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS), most recently serving as commander and NASA science officer of expedition 10 aboard the ISS from October 2004 to April 2005. He has logged 229 days in space — more than 36 hours of which were spent doing spacewalks.

Colonel Titov is an adviser with Excalibur Almaz and one of the world’s most experienced astronauts. His career began in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and flew four missions as a cosmonaut including becoming the first man ever to spend a whole year in space.

Read the full story.

The Isle of Man: First in Space?
Bauman Blog

Among the surprises: the CVI company that made the laser optics with which NASA’s Phoenix Lander (below) spotted snow on Mars last year. Another Manx company, Odyssey Moon, is competing to win the $30 million (£18.4 million).

Google Lunar X prize by putting a robotic landing craft on the Moon. A third, Excalibur Almaz, is developing space tourism. — each attracted to the island by a special Manx tax provision that imposes zero income tax for space industrialization.

“Later this month the Isle of Man will officially join the space race. Nicole Stott, (left) wife of a Manxman, will begin her four months on the International Space Station. Ms. Stott’s husband, Chris, a space fanatic working for Lockheed Martin in the late 1990s, persuaded the island’s government to file for the orbital satellite space slots to which it was entitled.

In 2004 Allan Bell, the Treasury Minister, needed a headline announcement for his budget and declared a zero corporate tax rate for space activities. The response, he says, was “quite amazing”.

Read the full story.

Rob Coppinger of Hyperbola has a couple of good stories about Excalibur Almaz, a company that will use leftover Soviet-era military space station hardware to built a space tourism business:

The company expects to have a test flight in 2013 and then slowly build the frequency of service of its Almaz spacecraft.

Two passengers will fly with a pilot-cosmonaut in its reusable capsule and expendable habitable service module. Eventually Excalibur hopes to earn $1 billion a year by launching up to 30 people into orbit at $35 million each.

The company is named after the 1970s Soviet Almaz military programme that flight-tested the capsule with a reusable hull and heat shield.

EADS Astrium is working on habitable service module concepts for Excalibur, which is also looking for new avionics and a life support system for the capsule.

Read Rob’s stories here and here.

In a nondescript building on a housing estate in Onchan a company called CVI made the laser optics with which Nasa’s Phoenix Lander spotted snow on Mars last year. Another Manx company, Odyssey Moon, is competing to win the $30million (£18.4million) Google Lunar X prize by putting a robotic landing craft on the Moon. A third, Excalibur Almaz, is developing space tourism.

Later this month Nicole Stott, wife of a Manxman, will begin her four months at the International Space Station. The Isle of Man has officially joined the space race. Mrs Stott’s husband, Chris, a space fanatic working for Lockheed Martin in the late 1990s, persuaded the island’s Government to file for the orbital satellite space slots that it is entitled to. In 2004 Allan Bell, the Treasury Minister, needed a headline-grabbing announcement for his budget and declared a zero corporate tax rate for space activities. The response, he says, was “quite amazing”.

Manx schoolchildren attend Nasa summer camps in Houston. Tim Craine, the space commerce director, regularly flies to Houston, Cape Canaveral and French Guiana. “I’m very lucky. I could have been director of patient care,” he says.

Read the full story.

Manx Company buys Soviet Spacecraft
Isle of Man Today

Three Almaz stations were launched into space under the pretence that they were civilian research craft.

The Almaz programme only came to light when the Soviet regime collapsed and there have been reports that the orbiters were armed with cannons normally used on Mig jet fighters so that US satellites could be destroyed if they were used to attack Soviet cosmonauts in space.
The Excalibur Almaz company has a wealth of space experience among its executives and advisers which include Space Shuttle astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Díaz, former Johnson Space Center director George W. S. Abbey and veteran Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov who became the first man ever to spend a whole year in space.

‘With this announcement, the dream of private orbital space exploration may become a reality in the very near future,’ said Mr Titov following an announcement of the company’s plans at the Moscow Air Show last week.

Excalibur Almaz now owns several Almaz spacecraft, including reusable re-entry vehicles (RRVs) and space stations used in the 1970s.

Read the full story.

EA PRESS RELEASE

Excalibur Almaz Limited (EA), an international space exploration company, today announced plans to open up a new era of private orbital space flight for commercial customers, using updated elements of the “Almaz” space system originally developed by JSC MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia.

Realization of EA’s project with technical assistance from NPOM will allow regular access to and from space. This project joins Russian space technology expertise with an international private enterprise to create a commercial offering of orbital spaceflight services for global customers.

EA plans to offer week-long orbital space flights beginning as early as 2013 – taking a big leap beyond the sub-orbital flight market targeted by most other private space companies. In addition to NPOM, other leading aerospace firms in the U.S., Europe and Japan will provide technical support for EA’s space flight operations.

The original Almaz space system technology, comprising reusable reentry vehicle (RRV) and space station, was successfully tested in flight by NPOM. Working with NPOM and its international contractors, EA is now updating the spacecraft to conduct crew and cargo space missions for private individuals, corporations, academic institutions and national governments.

EA Founder and CEO Art Dula said, “Through cooperation with NPOM and with the support of leading space contractors around the world and an exceptionally strong management and advisory team, EA is in a unique position to initiate a new era of private orbital space exploration.”

Cosmonaut Vladimir Titov, advisor to EA in Russia, said, “With this announcement, the dream of private orbital space exploration may become a reality in the very near future.”

Company Background

EA has ownership of several Almaz spacecraft, including reusable reentry vehicles (RRVs) and space stations.

EA will tailor space missions to accommodate customer objectives including exploration, cargo transportation and experimentation. On selected missions, spacecraft and space stations would provide platforms for microgravity scientific experiments, potentially serving the needs of governments and academic institutions.

EA’s spacecraft will consist of two parts: an RRV and an expendable service module to provide crewmembers with room to comfortably operate during spaceflight.

EA will update the Almaz RRVs with flight-proven technologies where appropriate, while retaining tested legacy systems to ensure safety and economy of operation. A critical feature of the RRVs is their reusability, which will reduce logistical, overhead and program costs for commercial access to space.

EA plans for its spacecraft to be compatible with a number of launch vehicles and capable of being launched from worldwide sites.

In addition to NPOM, leading aerospace firms contracting with EA include Space Flight Operations (SFO), a subsidiary of United Space Alliance, of the U.S.; Paragon Space Development Corporation of the U.S.; Qwaltec of the U.S.; EADS Astrium Space Transportation of Europe; and Japan Manned Space Systems (JAMSS) of Japan. EA has also formed strategic alliances with academic institutions including Rice University of the U.S and the International Space University of France, and is an Industry Forum member of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute of the U.S.

Established in 2005, EA is incorporated, headquartered and registered on the Isle of Man in the British Isles. EA’s support contractors are in Russia, Europe, Japan and the U.S. EA’s founders, executives and advisors include astronauts, cosmonauts and commercial aerospace business entrepreneurs.

About the Almaz program

The Almaz program was a military space program of the Soviet Union. The rocket and space complex “Almaz” developed at NPOM comprised orbital manned space station, transport vehicle, reusable reentry vehicle (RRV) for 3 persons, a cargo capsule delivering information to the Earth, and ground support facilities. This space complex was successfully tested both on the ground and in space.

Three crews of Soviet cosmonauts worked on the manned orbital space stations. The RRVs went through nine flight tests, with two RRVs flown to orbit several times, demonstrating their reusability.

The rich legacy of the Almaz program continues to live in all space stations built to date. The orbital manned Almaz space station is the origin of the Salyut and Mir space stations, and the International Space Station (ISS) inherited from Almaz the configuration of its main service module “Zvezda”.

The Almaz transport vehicle provided the basis for the ISS module “Zarya,” and also for the Salyut-7 space station module Kosmos-1686 and a line of modules for the Mir space station.