SpaceX has completed the third milestone of its commercial crew integrated capability (CCiCap) contract, finishing the integrated system requirements review (SRR) for a crewed launch system.
The SRR, which was completed at a meeting at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California headquarters on 29 October, signify that NASA is satisfied that the Dragon capsule, Falcon 9 launch vehicle and other components of SpaceX's proposal can meet the CCiCap requirements, and that questions raised at the project kickoff meeting in August have been answered or mooted.
"These initial milestones are just the beginning of a very exciting endeavour with SpaceX." says Ed Mango, NASA's commercial crew programme manager. "We expect to see significant progress from our three CCiCap partners in a fairly short amount of time."
Successfully completing the milestone earns $50 million for SpaceX, the largest in the CCiCap programme to date.
An uncrewed version of the Dragon capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean on 28 October, successfully completing the first commercial cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station.
SpaceX has 14 milestones under the CCiCap programme, worth a total of $440 million upon completion, excluding additional optional milestones.
Source: Flight International
