NASA-CCiCap (Commercial Crew dev.) [latest NASA progress report]

[Dr Mordrid]

The next step towards a commercial crew capability.

Link....

A COMMERCIAL CREW INTEGRATED CAPABILITY

Solicitation Number: NASA-CCiCap
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Office: Kennedy Space Center
Location: Office of Procurement
Solicitation Number: NASA-CCiCap
Notice Type: Pre-solicitation

Synopsis: Added: Jan 23, 2012 10:01 am

The following information is preliminary and subject to change.In 2009, NASA began commercial crew initiatives to stimulate the private sector to develop and demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities that could ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for both commercial and Government customers. Those initiatives focused on maturing designs of elements of a crew transportation system (CTS). NASA intends to begin a new initiative, the Commercial Crew integrated Capability(CCiCap), to facilitate industry's development of an integrated CTS. This activity is expected to result in significant maturation of commercial CTS. Facilitating development of this U.S. capability is expected to provide national economic benefit and support safe, reliable, and cost effective transportation to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

NASA intends to solicit proposals from U.S. space industry participants to mature thedesign and development of an integrated CTS which includes spacecraft, launch vehicle,ground and mission systems. Selected CCiCap participants will receive funded Space Act Agreements (SAA's) under NASA's Other Transactions Authority within the National Aeronautics and Space Act, 51 U.S.C. 20113. NASA intends to select a portfolio of multiple CCiCap SAA's that best meet the CCiCap goals within the available funding.An Announcement soliciting proposals is currently planned to be released on or about February 7, 2012, with proposals due approximately 45 days later. The award of multiple SAAs is planned for July / August 2012 with a base period through the end of May 2014. NASA does not intend to issue a draft of the Announcement but does plan to conduct a pre-proposal conference within two weeks after release of the Announcement to discuss the CCiCap activity and answer questions. NASA will only consider proposals from U.S. commercial providers as defined by the Commercial Space Act of 1998.

All questions, comments or other correspondence shall be submitted to the Agreement Officer at KSC-CCiCap@mail.nasa.gov.Please indicate your interest in this Announcement by January 30, 2012, by submitting the information below to KSC-CCiCap@mail.nasa.gov. Your non-binding letter of intent should include the company name, point of contact, address, phone number, e-mail, and nature of interest as either a primary participant or team member. Potential respondents are responsible for monitoring the Internet site below for the release of the Announcement and for downloading their own copy of the Announcement and any amendments.

The Internet site, or URL, for the Kennedy Space Center Business Opportunities page is: http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ep...gi?gr=D&pin=76 An Ombudsman will be appointed See NASA Specific Note B.This is not a solicitation for proposals and NASA does not intend to respond to questions about this synopsis at this time. As necessary, further information will be provided as amendments to this synopsis.

Contracting Office Address: NASA/John F. Kennedy Space Center, Procurement, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899

Point of Contact(s): C. David Shreve, Contracting Officer, Phone 321-867-3456, Fax 321-867-1166, Email david.shreve@nasa.gov - Rogelio Curiel, Contracting Officer, Phone 321-867-7498, Fax 321-867-3859,

Email rogelio.curiel@nasa.gov

[Dr Mordrid]

2 fully funded and one 50% funded awards will be made. Companies that don't get awards can continue on their own dime and have access to the NASA labs & centers.

MEDIA ADVISORY : M12-143

NASA to Announce New Agreements for Next Phase of Commercial Crew Development

WASHINGTON -- NASA will issue a news release to announce new agreements with industry partners for its Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative at 9 a.m. EDT, Friday, Aug. 3. At 10 a.m. NASA will host a news briefing from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website. NASA also will host a follow-up teleconference for media representatives with detailed questions at 10:45 a.m., immediately following the briefing.

Through CCiCap, NASA is stimulating the private sector to develop and demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities that could ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for both commercial and government customers.

CCiCap is an initiative of NASA's Commercial Crew Program and a priority of the Obama Administration. The objective of the program is to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. After the capability is matured, NASA could purchase commercial services to meet its space station crew transportation needs.

Televised news briefing participants at Kennedy are:

-- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
-- Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana
-- Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango

News teleconference participants are:

-- Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Directorate William Gerstenmaier
-- Director for Commercial Spaceflight Development Philip McAlister
-- Deputy Manager for Commercial Crew Program Brent Jett

Media representatives wishing to attend the televised briefing in person should arrive at Kennedy's Press Site by 9:30 a.m. for access to the OSB-II facility, where the event will take place. U.S. journalists without Kennedy accreditation must request credentials by 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2. International media accreditation for this event is closed. Badges for this specific event can be picked up at the Kennedy Space Center Badging Office on State Road 405. Media must apply for credentials online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

To participate in the teleconference, reporters must email their name, media affiliation and telephone number to Trent Perrotto at trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov by 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 3.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to the 10 a.m. streaming video of the announcement, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Audio of the 10:45 a.m. teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

To access presentation graphics during the telecon and for more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program and CCiCap, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

[Dr Mordrid]

With almost half a $billion each SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's CST-100 should really pick up steam. Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser is still in the hunt though, and they have a great team. We should see all these birds flying rather soon.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

RELEASE: 12-263

NASA ANNOUNCES NEXT STEPS IN EFFORT TO LAUNCH AMERICANS FROM U.S. SOIL

NASA Friday announced new agreements with three American commercial companies to design and develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years. Advances made by these companies under newly signed Space Act Agreements through the agency's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative are intended to ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers.

CCiCap partners are:

-- Sierra Nevada Corporation, Louisville, Colo., $212.5 million

-- Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Hawthorne, Calif., $440 million

-- The Boeing Company, Houston, $460 million

"Today, we are announcing another critical step toward launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country."

CCiCap is an initiative of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an administration priority. The objective of the CCP is to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and low Earth orbit. After the capability is matured and expected to be available to the government and other customers, NASA could contract to purchase commercial services to meet its station crew transportation needs.

The new CCiCAP agreements follow two previous initiatives by NASA to spur the development of transportation subsystems, and represent the next phase of U.S. commercial human space transportation, in which industry partners develop crew transportation capabilities as fully integrated systems. Between now and May 31, 2014, NASA's partners will perform tests and mature integrated designs. This would then set the stage for a future activity that will launch crewed orbital demonstration missions to low Earth orbit by the middle of the decade.

"For 50 years American industry has helped NASA push boundaries, enabling us to live, work and learn in the unique environment of microgravity and low Earth orbit," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The benefits to humanity from these endeavors are incalculable. We're counting on the creativity of industry to provide the next generation of transportation to low Earth orbit and expand human presence, making space accessible and open for business."

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities to low Earth orbit, the agency also is developing the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion MPCV will expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

[Dr Mordrid]

Boeing's launch costa would be high given its choice of the Atlas V as the primary launcher (in spite of launcher agnostic claims), ops costs etc. SpaceX is an all-in-one deal & cost and Dream Chaser actually is launcher agnostic from the get-go. If Boeing does drop out that would leave the SpaceX DragonRider and the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser spaceplane.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/flight-not-guaranteed-for-boeings-commercial-crew-capsule-376515/

Flight not guaranteed for Boeing's commercial crew capsule

Boeing may yet shelve future development of its CST-100 capsule, despite a recent award of more than $460 million from NASA's programme to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

"Our base business case is based on transportation to ISS through 2020," says John Elbon, Boeing's vice-president of space exploration. Though not formalised, the company requires at least two flights per year from NASA to make the project viable.

"That's just for the ISS. That's kind of the basement," adds Elbon. More flights than those to the ISS are required he says, and Boeing is cautious about over-committing itself while future revenue streams are unclear.

NASA has funding for two full awards and one partial award in the commercial crew integrated capability (CCiCap) programme, to be doled out gradually according to established technical milestones. The two full grants were awarded to Boeing and SpaceX, while Sierra Nevada Corporation won the partial award.

Attached to each space act agreement, as the contracts are known, is an extensive list of optional milestones that takes the companies into flight testing.

While Boeing stands to gain at least $460 million by completing all 19 milestones during the 21-month base period, which would bring the CST-100 through the critical design review stage, an undisclosed, but significant, amount of additional funding may be gained through accomplishing 33 optional milestones.

But the base-period investment alone may not be enough for Boeing to justify continued funding, which may bring CST-100 development to an end.

While the cut-off point "wouldn't be at the end of this base period", says Elbon, it may be in the following option period.

"It's more important to have a definite market there. Obviously Boeing has significant resources, and if there's a business caseit's important that it's clear NASA is committed to the commercial crew programme going forward, that they're going to use it for flights to the ISS, and that we can grow some markets around that."

Boeing is working closely with space station manufacturer Bigelow Aerospace and orbital tourism company Space Adventures in an attempt to secure non-NASA revenue. While Bigelow and Space Adventures have racked up tangible success, neither has yet demonstrated a requirement for regular passenger trips into orbit.

The CCiCap contenders' business cases were among the criteria by which NASA evaluated their proposals. In a NASA justification document released after the selection announcement, Boeing's business case was described in "neutral" terms. It says: "Proposed corporate investment during the CCiCap period does not provide significant industry financial investment and there is an increased risk of having insufficient funding in the base period."

Boeing programme manager John Mulholland said it was difficult to compare the contributions made by companies. He said: "We are only counting things that are direct monetary contributions as an investment, we have a very conservative guideline that we use for what we call true investment. There is a lot of additional contributions we are making to the programme beyond that cash infusion."

[Dr Mordrid]

SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada have each receved ~$10 million to document yheir progress in human rating Dragon, CST-100 and Dream Chaser. This was announced weeks ahead of schedule, which may indicate they are progressing faster than anticipated.

Also;

CCiCap (commercial crew) progress report on milestones -

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/713805main_December_2012_60_Day_Report2.pdf

Completed -

Boeing: 3 of 19
SpaceX: 3 of 14
Sierra Nevada: 2 of 9

Of note concerning SpaceX's SuperDraco engine -

To date, the SuperDraco engines have undergone 58 hot-fire tests for a total run time of about 117 seconds. According to SpaceX Project Manager Garrett Reisman, “The SuperDraco development and test effort is indicating that this newly designed engine will surpass our original requirements.”

If SuperDraco is that powerful, and is a deeply throttleable as rumors indicate, then it might also be useful as the engine(s) in a service module in a BEO (beyond Earth orbit) Drago. Human and large cargo landers too - a very compact but insanely powerful/ (for its mass & volume) thruster.

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/718299main_CCP-Status-Update-1-9-13-finalSM.pdf

Dig the fancy SpaceX flight suit! Very Trek-ish.

Also, there's a (too small IMO) graphic of an Falcon 9 v1.1 & Dragon with the crew access tower and pad escape slide line in their section.

First crew flight is likely in 2015 by SpaceX's Dragon, followed by Boeing's CST-100 and Sierra Nevada's Dream Chase in 2016-2017