Feb
5
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admin
2/5/2010 12:03 AM
Hot on the heels of the new NASA shift away from the Constellation program to stronger support for commercial enterprises becoming more active in space, the agency yesterday announced $50 million in seed funding toward commercial crew initiatives. The money, part of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, is being split between five companies: Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, and Paragon Space Development Corporation.
Sierra Nevada Corp. will be receiving the most money, $20 million, for development milestones toward completion of the seven-person Dreamchaser orbital vehicle, which is designed to be launched from an Atlas V rocket. The Dreamchaser was formerly a competitor for a COTS award under SpaceDev Corporation, which has since been purchased by Sierra Nevada.
Boeing will receive $18 million for development milestones toward its own seven-person space capsule designed for transportation in Low-Earth Orbit, presumably to be launched atop a Delta IV rocket.
United Launch Alliance (the joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that currently operates the Space Shuttle program) will receive $6.7 million in milestone-based funds to develop a system for detecting emergencies in the company's launch systems (which presumably would be used for launch operations for the other commercial launch systems launching on Lockheed's Atlas V or Boeing's Delta IV).
Blue Origin will receive $3.7 million in milestone-based funds for development of a crew test module and an escape system for the spacecraft the company has been developing for the past several years. According to a 2005 interview, the Blue Origin launch vehicle is designed to be sub-orbital, although the company has stated plans to progress to orbital launches over time.
Paragon Space Development Corporation will receive $1.4 million in milestone-based payments for development of an "air revitalization system" for use in crewed spacecraft. This sounds like an atmospheric filtering system to remove CO2 and produce breathable oxygen, a system such as might be used on any of the other spacecraft being designed.
These funds are in addition to the COTS money already allocated (also in milestone-based payments) to Orbital Sciences ($171 million) and SpaceX ($278 million). SpaceX should be launching their initial Falcon 9 rocket in the first half of this year carrying its Dragon capsules into space for COTS qualification.
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