NASA Adds 3rd Company to List of Space Station Shippers

Great news for Sierra Nevada Corporation – their Dream Chaser (more about this space plane You can read here) space plane will be one from three resupply vehicles for Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract.

The $47 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Systems Directorate will support the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program for national security space missions.

In addition to Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and Orbital ATK – which already launch resupply missions under earlier contracts – will also fly resupply missions to the station between 2019 and 2024. By that time, the Dragon could well be capable of touching down on land. These cargo resupply contracts follow the last round of contracts, which were awarded in 2008 to SpaceX and Orbital. But by 2019, shipments could be delivered from space to NASA in as little as three hours. Current studies that involve bringing home live organisms can only study characteristics that won’t change in landing, such as bone density. Scientists said experiments such as protein crystals grown in space would likely survive such a return.

The space agency both expanded the number of companies providing services from two to three, and more than doubled the potential value of awards to as much as $14 billion over about five years. NASA awarded a contract this week to develop Dream Chaser, a spacecraft that will land on runways. But in 2014, NASA passed over the Dream Chaser for crewed flights and went with SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner instead.

Besides, over 1,000 USA companies are now involved in NASA’s commercial space initiatives and about 80 percent of the agency’s activities are carried out by its partners in industry and at America’s academic institutions, he said.

Choosing a third company to run ISS resupply missions will help cover any future gaps, says ISS program manager Kirk Shireman. NASA evaluated those contracts, and the performance of each carrier before taking new proposals. No orders have been placed yet, he said. The ventures are valued between $1.2 and $1.5 billion. Their efforts paid off as the Dream Chaser’s design and unique specifications earned it a slice of the commercial cargo pie. Other cargo ships, including Orbital’s Cygnus and Russia’s Progress, are filled with trash and burn up on re-entry.

CRS-2 missions to be launched aboard the company’s upgraded Antares rocket will originate from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. “We remain on schedule for Antares launches to resume in the second quarter of 2016”. Because it lands essentially like an airplane, the vehicle offers a less dynamic return to Earth than a capsule. Unlike the shuttle, Sierra Nevada’s craft is made of nontoxic materials that would allow it to touch down from space missions on standard commercial runways. Similar tests are planned for this year. Are expected to launch their respective spacecrafts in Florida. Its wings are folded on ascent, but company officials have said the mini-version of the shuttle will be able to use even commercial landing strips if necessary. “It’s good to have more than one type of vehicle, and it’s also a gentler ride down”.