NASA has delayed an expected request for proposals (RFP) to Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the estimated $12 billion Orbital Space Plane (OSP) programme, after calls from Congress and other bodies not to proceed until it becomes clear how the project will fit into NASA's overall programme.
The OSP will serve as an International Space Station crew rescue vehicle, to replace the Russian Soyuz TMA and eventually as a routine crew transfer vehicle. There have also been questions about the budget, especially as the spaceplane will almost certainly now be based on an Apollo-like capsule design.
Congressman Sherwood Boehlart, chairman of the Committee on Science, says: "It's wrong to expect Congress to sign on to soliciting or awarding a contract for OSP when no one can tell us how the OSP fits into the future of NASA or remotely how much the project will cost."
NASA optimistically sees the OSP as "the next step for future exploration missions...to be used within programme architectures...and the foundation of the next-generation of deep space crewed vehicles".
Source: Flight International
