Recovery Act Funding To Be Used To Design And Demonstrate Crew
Transportation Concepts
With the President's budget
apparently moving NASA away from carrying humans into space, the
agency has awarded $50 million through funded agreements to further
the commercial sector's capability to support transport of crew to
and from low Earth orbit. This step is the first taken by NASA
consistent with the president's direction to foster commercial
human spaceflight capabilities.
"The president has asked NASA to partner with the aerospace
industry in a fundamentally new way, making commercially provided
services the primary mode of astronaut transportation to the
International Space Station," said NASA Administrator Charles
Bolden. "We are pleased to be able to quickly move forward to
advance this exciting plan for NASA."
Through an open competition for funds from the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009, NASA has awarded Space Act Agreements
to Blue Origin of Kent, WA; The Boeing Company of Houston; Paragon
Space Development Corporation of Tucson, AZ; Sierra Nevada
Corporation of Louisville, CO; and United Launch Alliance of
Centennial, CO. The agreements are for the development of crew
concepts and technology demonstrations and investigations for
future commercial support of human spaceflight.
The Space Act Agreements are designed to foster entrepreneurial
activity leading to high-tech job growth in engineering, analysis,
design and research, and to promote economic growth as capabilities
for new markets are created. Funding for these Space Act Agreements
will stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop and
demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities.
"These selections represent a critical step to enable future
commercial human spaceflight," said Doug Cooke, associate
administrator for Exploration Systems at NASA. "These impressive
proposals will advance NASA significantly along the path to using
commercial services to ferry astronauts to and from low Earth
orbit, and we look forward to working with the selected teams,"
Cooke said.
All Space Act Agreements are designed to partially fund the
development of system concepts, key technologies, and capabilities
that could ultimately be used in commercial crew human space
transportation systems. The selected teams also proposed matching
funds from other sources that would leverage the taxpayer
investment.
The selected teams and awards are:
- Blue Origin, $3.7 million
- The Boeing Company, $18 million
- Paragon Space Development Corporation, $1.4 million
- Sierra Nevada Corporation, $20 million
- United Launch Alliance, $6.7 million
The signed Space Act Agreements will fund performance milestones
beginning in February 2010. The aggregate value of all of the Space
Act Agreements is approximately $50 million. The Commercial Crew
and Cargo Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
is managing this effort.