NASA Awards Contracts In Next Step Toward Safely Launching American Astronauts From U.S. Soil

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Dec. 10, 2012

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

Trent Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-429

NASA AWARDS CONTRACTS IN NEXT STEP TOWARD SAFELY LAUNCHING AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS FROM U.S. SOIL

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA announced Monday the next step in its 
plan to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil, selecting three 
companies to conduct activities under contracts that will enable 
future certification of commercial spacecraft as safe to carry humans 
to the International Space Station.

Advances made by these American companies during the first contract 
phase known as the certification products contracts (CPC) will begin 
the process of ensuring integrated crew transportation systems will 
meet agency safety requirements and standards to launch American 
astronauts to the International Space Station from the United States, 
ending the agency's reliance on Russia for these transportation 
services. The second phase of certification will result in a 
separately competed contract.

CPC contractors are:
-- The Boeing Company, Houston, $9,993,000
-- Sierra Nevada Corporation Space System, Louisville, Colo., 
$10,000,000
-- Space Exploration technologies Corp., Hawthorne, Calif., $9,589,525

"These contracts represent important progress in restoring human 
spaceflight capabilities to the United States," said Phil McAlister, 
director of the Commercial Spaceflight Development Division at NASA 
Headquarters in Washington. "NASA and its industry partners are 
committed to the goal of safely and cost-effectively launching 
astronauts from home within the next five years."

During the Phase 1 CPC contracts, from Jan. 22, 2013, through May 30, 
2014, the companies will work with NASA's Commercial Crew Program 
(CCP) to discuss and develop products to implement the agency's 
flight safety and performance requirements. This includes 
implementation across all aspects of the space system, including the 
spacecraft, launch vehicle, and ground and mission operations.

Under the contract, a certification plan will be developed to achieve 
safe, crewed missions to the space station. This includes data that 
will result in developing engineering standards, tests and analyses 
of the crew transportation systems design.

"I congratulate the three companies for their selection," said Ed 
Mango, CCP manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "This 
is the program's first major, fixed-price contract. The effort will 
bring space system designs within NASA's safety and performance 
expectations for future flights to the International Space Station."

The second phase of the certification contract, expected to begin in 
mid-2014, will involve a full and open competition. It will include 
the final development, testing and verifications necessary to allow 
crewed demonstration flights to the space station.

NASA is facilitating the development of U.S. commercial crew space 
transportation capabilities with the goal of achieving safe, reliable 
and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit for potential 
future government and commercial customers.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop these 
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 in the solar system.

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew 

	
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