NASA presented this at the recent AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) meeting. C3PO = Commercial Crew and Cargo PrOgram.
Link....(PDF)
The real messages from this are twofold
1. multiple vehicles for redundancy
2. interoperability: a common life support system, a cheap 'pusher' launch abort system for vehicles that need it, a common emergency detection system (to detect events that would trigger the launch abort system) and the willingness to develop for use on any available launcher: Falcon 9, Atlas V....whatever.
IMO if these pan out it works for everyone; taxpayers, NASA and the service providers.
Link....(PDF)
The real messages from this are twofold
1. multiple vehicles for redundancy
2. interoperability: a common life support system, a cheap 'pusher' launch abort system for vehicles that need it, a common emergency detection system (to detect events that would trigger the launch abort system) and the willingness to develop for use on any available launcher: Falcon 9, Atlas V....whatever.
IMO if these pan out it works for everyone; taxpayers, NASA and the service providers.
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