Author Topic: Private Space Taxi Builders Pass Key Milestones for NASA  (Read 875 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online Buster's Uncle

  • With community service, I
  • Ascend
  • *
  • Posts: 49395
  • €61
  • View Inventory
  • Send /Gift
  • Because there are times when people just need a cute puppy  Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur  A WONDERFUL concept, Unity - & a 1-way trip that cost 400 trillion & 40 yrs.  
  • AC2 is my instrument, my heart, as I play my song.
  • Planet tales writer Smilie Artist Custom Faction Modder AC2 Wiki contributor Downloads Contributor
    • View Profile
    • My Custom Factions
    • Awards
Private Space Taxi Builders Pass Key Milestones for NASA
« on: August 24, 2012, 02:55:26 PM »
Quote
Private Space Taxi Builders Pass Key Milestones for NASA
By SPACE.com Staff | SPACE.com – 4 hrs ago.. .

 
Two commercial spaceflight companies have checked off vital milestones on the path toward flights to the International Space Station for NASA, the space agency announced today (Aug. 23).
 
The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX has completed its Space Act Agreement under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS. The company is slated to launch the first of its 12 contracted robotic cargo flights to the space station from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in October, officials said.
 
Meanwhile, the Dream Chaser space plane being developed by Sierra Nevada Space Systems in Colorado has reached its first milestone — a program implementation plan review — under NASA's recently announced Commercial Crew integrated Capability initiative. CCiCap is part of the agency's effort to spur the development of private American crew-carrying spaceships, to fill the void left by the space shuttle's retirement.
 
"We're working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across the United States," Bolden said from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "And we're working to in-source the work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back here to the U.S. where it belongs." [Top 10 Private Spaceships]
 
SpaceX has already flown to the space station once as part of its COTS partnership. The company's unmanned Dragon capsule docked to the orbiting lab during a historic demonstration mission in May, becoming the first private vehicle ever to do so.
 
The flight was designed to test whether Dragon and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket were ready to begin the 12 official resupply flights, for which SpaceX holds a NASA contract worth $1.6 billion.
 
NASA also signed a $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. for eight robotic cargo flights with its Cygnus vessel. Orbital plans to launch its first test flight with Cygnus this winter, NASA officials said.

 Earlier this month, NASA announced that Sierra Nevada will receive $212.5 million under CCiCap, the latest initiative of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX will get $440 million to help upgrade Dragon to a crew-carrying craft, while Boeing was awarded $460 million for its CST-100 capsule.
 
The Commercial Crew Program also awarded funding to private spaceflight firms in each of the last two years, in rounds known as Commercial Crew Development 1 and 2. Sierra Nevada got funding during both CCDev-1 and CCDev-2 as well.
 
NASA has said it wants at least two private American spaceships to be flying astronauts to the space station by 2017. Until that happens, the agency will be dependent on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to provide this taxi service, at about $63 million per seat.
http://news.yahoo.com/private-space-taxi-builders-pass-key-milestones-nasa-094228970.html?_esi=1

 

* User

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?


Login with username, password and session length

Select language:

* Community poll

SMAC v.4 SMAX v.2 (or previous versions)
-=-
24 (7%)
XP Compatibility patch
-=-
9 (2%)
Gog version for Windows
-=-
103 (32%)
Scient (unofficial) patch
-=-
40 (12%)
Kyrub's latest patch
-=-
14 (4%)
Yitzi's latest patch
-=-
89 (28%)
AC for Mac
-=-
3 (0%)
AC for Linux
-=-
6 (1%)
Gog version for Mac
-=-
10 (3%)
No patch
-=-
16 (5%)
Total Members Voted: 314
AC2 Wiki Logo
-click pic for wik-

* Random quote

We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?
~Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7. Activity recorded M.Y. 2302.22467. (TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED)

* Select your theme

*
Templates: 5: index (default), PortaMx/Mainindex (default), PortaMx/Frames (default), Display (default), GenericControls (default).
Sub templates: 8: init, html_above, body_above, portamx_above, main, portamx_below, body_below, html_below.
Language files: 4: index+Modifications.english (default), TopicRating/.english (default), PortaMx/PortaMx.english (default), OharaYTEmbed.english (default).
Style sheets: 0: .
Files included: 45 - 1228KB. (show)
Queries used: 35.

[Show Queries]