NASA Administrator Announces New Commercial Crew and Cargo Milestones

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



Aug. 23, 2012

Candrea Thomas
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
candrea.k.thomas@nasa.gov

David Weaver
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
david.s.weaver@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-293

NASA ADMINISTRATOR ANNOUNCES NEW COMMERCIAL CREW AND CARGO MILESTONES

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced 
Thursday new milestones in the nation's commercial space initiatives 
from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The latest 
advances made by NASA's commercial space partners pave the way for 
the first contracted flight of cargo to the International Space 
Station (ISS) this fall and mark progress toward a launch of 
astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years.

Bolden announced Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed 
its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital 
Transportation Services (COTS). SpaceX is scheduled to launch the 
first of its 12 contracted cargo flights to the space station from 
Cape Canaveral in October, under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services 
Program.

"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. "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."

Through the COTS program, NASA provides investments to stimulate the 
American commercial space industry. As part of its COTS partnership, 
SpaceX became the first commercial company to resupply the space 
station in May, successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon 
spacecraft to the orbiting complex. During the historic mission, the 
Dragon was captured by astronauts using the station's robot arm, 
unloaded and safely returned to Earth carrying experiments conducted 
aboard ISS. Later this winter, Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to carry 
out its first test flight under COTS.

Bolden also announced NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corp. has conducted 
its first milestone under the agency's recently announced Commercial 
Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. The milestone, a 
program implementation plan review, marks an important first step in 
Sierra Nevada's efforts to develop a crew transportation system with 
its Dream Chaser spacecraft.

CCiCap is an initiative of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an 
Obama administration priority. The objective of the CCP is to 
facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space 
transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable 
and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low Earth 
orbit. After the capability is matured, it is expected to be 
available to the government and other customers. NASA could contract 
to purchase commercial services to meet its station crew 
transportation needs later this decade.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial 
spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion 
spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and 
heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human 
exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for 
crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence 
beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across 
the solar system.

For more information about NASA's commercial space initiatives and 
programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercial

For more information about the present and future of American human 
spaceflight, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration 

	
-end-



To subscribe to the list, send a message to: 
ksc-subscribe@newsletters.nasa.gov
To remove your address from the list, send a message to:
ksc-unsubscribe@newsletters.nasa.gov


[Index of Archives]     [KSC Site]     [NASA News]     [NASA Science News]     [JPL]     [Marshall Space Flight Center]     [NTSB]     [Yosemite News]     [Tuolumne Meadows Campground]     [STB]     [Deep Creek Forum]     [Cassini Status Reports]     [Telescopes]

  Powered by Linux