Two Year Contracts Awarded To Develop Payload Delivery
Systems
NASA has selected seven companies to integrate and fly
technology payloads on commercial suborbital reusable platforms
that carry payloads near the boundary of space.
As part of NASA's Flight Opportunities Program, each successful
vendor will receive an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity
contract. These two-year contracts, worth a combined total of $10
million, will allow NASA to draw from a pool of commercial space
companies to deliver payload integration and flight services. The
flights will carry a variety of payloads to help meet the agency's
research and technology needs.
"Through this catalog approach, NASA is moving toward the goal
of making frequent, low-cost access to near-space available to a
wide range of engineers, scientists and technologists," said NASA
Chief Technologist Bobby Braun at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
"The government's ability to open the suborbital research frontier
to a broad community of innovators will enable maturation of the
new technologies and capabilities needed for NASA's future missions
in space."
The selected companies are:
- Armadillo Aerospace, Heath, TX.
- Near Space Corp., Tillamook, OR.
- Masten Space Systems, Mojave, CA.
- Up Aerospace Inc., Highlands Ranch, CO.
- Virgin Galactic, Mojave, CA.
- Whittinghill Aerospace LLC, Camarillo, CA.
- XCOR, Mojave, CA.
NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist is charged with maturing
crosscutting technologies to flight readiness status for future
space missions. Through these indefinite-delivery,
indefinite-quantity contracts, NASA intends to provide frequent
flight opportunities for payloads on suborbital platforms.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation said in a news release it
is pleased to congratulate its member companies Armadillo
Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR
Aerospace selected in the latest round of contract awards Tuesday
to integrate and fly payloads to space as part of NASA’s
Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) program.
Commercial reusable suborbital spacecraft – such as (Top
R-L) Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, XCOR Aerospace’s
Lynx, (Bottom R-L) Masten Space Systems’ Xaero, Blue
Origin’s New Shepard, and (not pictured) Armadillo
Aerospace’s modular vehicles – provide the nation with
a new low-cost capability to carry payloads and people to the edge
of space. NASA is taking advantage of these capabilities with
its CRuSR program. Following the Space Shuttle’s
retirement, commercial suborbital vehicles are expected to be the
next American flights of people into space from US soil.
Admiral Craig Steidle, President of the Commercial Spaceflight
Federation, stated, “Today’s (Tuesday's) announcement
illustrates the future of NASA-industry partnerships in order to
offer R&D, science, and education flight
opportunities.”
According to NASA, “each successful vendor will receive an
indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. These two-year
contracts, worth a combined total of $10 million, will allow NASA
to draw from a pool of commercial space companies to deliver
payload integration and flight services. The flights will carry a
variety of payloads to help meet the agency's research and
technology needs.” A total of seven firms were
selected.
Admiral Steidle (pictured) added, “The Commercial
Spaceflight Federation applauds the leadership of Dr. Bobby Braun,
NASA’s Chief Technologist. The Commercial Spaceflight
Federation is a strong advocate for the CRuSR program and for Space
Technology.”
NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun stated in the NASA press
release, “NASA is moving toward the goal of making frequent,
low-cost access to near-space available to a wide range of
engineers, scientists and technologists. The government's
ability to open the suborbital research frontier to a broad
community of innovators will enable maturation of the new
technologies and capabilities needed for NASA's future missions in
space.”
Commercial Spaceflight Federation Executive Director John
Gedmark noted, “This is a big day for commercial space.
Just as 1920s air mail purchases helped jumpstart the airline
industry, we expect that NASA’s purchases of flights on
commercial suborbital vehicles will help accelerate this new
industry. Hundreds of scientists, engineers, and educators
have attended CSF workshops on the topic of using commercial
suborbital vehicles, and we are thrilled to see that the R&D
community will now be able to get rides to space.”