NASA Announces Call For New Commercial Space Industry Proposals
NASA has issued a call for the commercial space industry to submit proposals for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Initiative.
The move by the space agency is part of the movement to develop a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capable of taxiing astronauts to and from low Earth orbit, NASA said in a press release.
“President Obama is working hard to create an American economy built to last,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a press release. “NASA’s support of commercial innovation to reach low Earth orbit is helping to support these efforts by spurring new technological development and creating jobs and economic benefits for years to come.”
The proposals will lead to Space Act Agreements that could help “NASA and the U.S. achieve safe, reliable, and cost effective human access to space.”
The space agency said it will be giving away multiple awards this summer, with values ranging between $300 to $500 million.
NASA is planning a pre-proposal conference on February 14 at the Courtyard Marriott in Florida to give the industry a better understanding of the proposal.
It said firms will have until May 2014 to complete their designs, and until the middle of the decade to test fly their spaceships in orbit.
Since the space shuttle program has been retired, NASA has relied on Russia for transportation to the ISS.
Russia charges NASA about $60 million per person for rides on its Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station.
NASA has given private companies about $365.5 million to spend on pioneering commercial space exploration.
Companies like Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) have already won the grants.
Boeing is developing a capsule that would fly on an Atlas V rocket, which has a near perfect success rate since launching for the first time in August 2002.
SpaceX is developing its Dragon freighter and Falcon 9 rocket to fly crew to the space station, while Sierra Nevada is developing the Dream Chaser, which is similar to a miniature space shuttle.
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Image Caption: This is an artist’s conception of the Dream Chaser spacecraft under development by Sierra Nevada of Centennial, Colo., for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). Credit: NASA
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