by Rob Coppinger
California based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Oklahoma's Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK) have won funded space act agreements (SAA) and will have $485 million split between them for the four-year phase one of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme.
By 2010 COTS will see the companies demonstrate capabilities to provide cargo and possibly crew transportation to the International Space Station (ISS) into the next decade. SpaceX has won a $278 million SAA and RpK a £207 million agreement. The companies have also raised private financing to supplement the NASA funding. An SAA is an agreement for a private company to use NASA facilities and to work with the US space agency's personnel. The SAA money will be paid out in milestones linked to design reviews, testing readiness and eventually test flights.
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| Above: SpaceX's Falcon 1 launches from its Kwajalien Atoll launch site |
“These companies were selected from a total of 20 applicants, based on solid engineering of innovative concepts and sound business plans,” says NASA commercial crew and cargo programme office manager Alan Lindenmoyer. He added that he expects the two companies to exploit other markets such as orbital space tourism.
SpaceX is proposing to use its Falcon 9 launcher and Dragon capsule that has cargo and crew variants, while Rocketplane-Kistler’s offering is its fully reusable K-1 launcher. The Falcon would launch from either the Reagan Test Range on the Pacific’s Kwajalein Atoll or Vandenberg air force base in California. The K-1 would launch from a private site near Woomera in Australia and its first flight is planned to be in 2008. Both the K-1 and Falcon 9 are two stage vehicles and use liquid oxygen and kerosene fuelled engines.
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| Above: Rocketplane-Kistler's two stage reusable K-1 rocket launches |
The K-1’s first stage uses three of its Russian designed engine and its second stage, which is the delivery vehicle that returns for reuse, has one of them. The Falcon 9 is designed to place 8.7t (19,100lb) in low Earth orbit and is based on SpaceX’s Falcon 1, which crashed after a T+34s engine shutdown on its maiden launch in March this year.
In COTS phase one the companies will have to demonstrate four capabilities, unpressurised cargo delivery and disposal; pressurised cargo delivery and disposal; internal cargo delivery and return; and an option for crew transportation. Then in phase two NASA plans to purchase these services competitively. It has informed the two winning companies it will be asking for supply of 5t of unpressurised cargo and 7t of pressurised cargo to the ISS. The second phase could see a crew transport system developed.
RpK’s team for COTS includes Orbital Sciences, Orbitec, Lockheed Martin, Aerojet, Alenia Spazio, Oceaneering, Draper, Irvin Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, and other aerospace firms. RpK will also establish a Houston office to support its COTS effort. The COTS finalists that have not been successful are Andrews Space, SpaceDev, Spacehab, and Trans¬formational Space. These companies could still enter into unfunded SAAs with NASA if they wanted to compete in phase two.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
