Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser space plane is unique, because it can land on a traditional airline runway, while most cargo ships splash down in the ocean or burn up upon reentry.
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New Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-2) contracts to keep the station stocked through 2024 have also been awarded to Orbital ATK and SpaceX.
Since the Obama administration outsourced space station resupply missions, commercial carriers have transported 35,000 of pounds of cargo there, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden wrote in a blog post Thursday. The “maximum potential value of all contracts is $14 billion from 2016 through 2024”, NASA said in a press release.
Orbital ATK debuted its Cygnus spacecraft during a 2013 demo flight, and conducted two more missions before an Antares rocket exploded shortly after liftoff in 2014.
Having two launch locations and two types of rockets, Orbital officials said, allows the company to better tailor its missions to NASA’s needs.
The contractAhead of NASA’s decision on Thursday, it wasn’t clear how numerous active proposals from the space companies vying for the important program NASA would approve.
Shireman said the berthing and docking options exist for both Sierra Nevada and SpaceX because while berthing requires the assistance of ISS crewmembers operating the station’s arm, those spacecraft can use different ports on the station with larger hatches.
Since NASA scuppered the space shuttle program it’s been busy, but as it’s unable to supply the International Space Station itself it has been forced to work with private space companies. The company said Jupiter could also be used for other applications, such as satellite servicing. This time around, Boeing missed getting a piece of the cargo contract – as did Lockheed Martin, which is the prime contractor for NASA’s Orion deep-space crew capsule.
What’s more, the contract splits up the 18 unmanned flights equally among three companies, one more than the current contract has. “They will help develop the commercial market as we move toward cis-lunar space and onto Mars”.
NASA estimates it will need about four cargo runs per year, but expects to spend “significantly” less than $14bn overall, according to station program manager Kirk Shireman. He said NASA signed a task order with SpaceX in December for a flight “to bridge the gap” before the CRS-2 missions begin.
Dream Chaser will join NASAs fleet of vehicles created to go into low-Earth orbit and return.
Besides SpaceX, which you’d be forgiven for thinking was the only private space company in existence with all the attention it gets, NASA has selected Oribtal ATK and Sierra Nevada Corp.
Unlike SpaceX and Sierra Nevada, Orbital isn’t offering NASA the ability to shuttle sensitive items back to Earth, such as scientific experiments involving living organisms.
A new player has entered the business of delivering people and cargo to the International Space Station, using technology that harkens back to the space shuttle era.
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Sierra Nevada will receive money as well to launch its Dream Chaser on top of the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket.
