NASA is reducing the first year spend on its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme by 20%, and using Hurricane Katrina disaster funds to cover a projected $30 million shortfall in the fiscal year 2007 budget.
COTS will fund development of launch systems able to demonstrate a capability for the commercial delivery of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2010. Originally COTS was to get $170 million in its first two years - $50 million in FY2006 and $120 million in FY2007.
But FY2006 funding has been cut by $10 million and NASA's requested budget for FY2007, which starts in October, reduces funding to around $91 million.
"It has been determined that $40 million will cover the COTS requirements in FY2006 - $20 million of the [remaining] $40 million is FY2005 funding from the Katrina supplemental," says the US space agency.
NASA acknowledges that companies bidding for COTS funds are concerned the funding reductions could harm their ability to raise private capital. And sources close to the bidders say they fear the reduction in funding will affect their ability to demonstrate a cargo delivery capability by the target date of 2010.
Contractors for the COTS demonstrations will be selected in August. COTS is being funded from the agency's ISS crew and cargo budget, which also pays for the Soyuz and Progress launches that NASA has had to buy from Russia due to grounding of the Space Shuttle.
Source: Flight International
