Most of you will be well aware by now that NASA’s fleet of space shuttle’s will be retired 2010. After nearly 30 years of (semi-)regular trips to space, NASA is mothballing the Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavor space shuttles.
But, NASA isn’t quitting the space business, not by a long shot. They’ve still got a space station up there that needs to be refueled, resupplied and remanned. Thus, NASA is facing a tough few years between the retirement of their only feasible means of space travel – the space shuttle – and their replacements, the Orion spacecraft.
At the moment, NASA’s astronauts destined for the International Space Station will be entirely reliant upon the Russian space program. And, given their histories with each other, this is definitely not NASA’s first choice.
NASA is attempting to minimize their dependency on the Russian space program, by contracting out to private businesses. Their project, Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), is offering a total of roughly $500 million in funding to subsidize development and demonstration of other ways to transport cargo to the ISS.
Of that $500 million, El Segundo, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has already taken $278 million in NASA financial assistance. And though they themselves have had their fare share of setbacks, they have managed to stay within NASA’s good graces and meet all their COTS deadlines. Their destination is a 2009 demonstration of their Dragon pressurized capsule, and it’s accompanying Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
They too though submitted a second COTS proposal, after Rocketplane Kistler was dropped by NASA, due the failure of their K-1 reusable launcher program. NASA reopened the funding, and accepted new proposals from companies, to be submitted by a November 21 deadline.
SpaceX’s proposal consisted of requesting additional funding for the acceleration for crew capabilities aboard Dragon. Their proposal is smart, considering this is one of NASA’s prime needs at the moment, if they are to lessen their reliance upon Russia.
However SpaceX is definitely not the only company vying for the financial aid. Former owned by Ford, and later bought out by Loral Space & Communications; the Space Systems/Loral team is attempting to get their hands on the money for a novel concept.
Their concept plan is based upon teammates Constellation Services International's LEO (low Earth orbit) Express cargo system. However instead of a heavy reliance upon flight-proven Russian hardware – which made it an untenable solution for NASA – Space Systems/Loral is proposing using their already proven 1300-series satellite bus.
The 1300 has been an overwhelmingly successful satellite that has been used by various companies since the mid 80’s. However SSL are hoping that it can also be used as a refuelable tug that would have the capability to remain in orbit for up to 10 years. It would act as a go between, docking with a launched cargo vessel, maneuvering it to the station, and then later removing it and allowing it to be deorbited over an ocean.
Their proposal is not new to NASA though, after SSL submitted a similar COTS bid with Constellation Services International last year. NASA rejected the proposal though, because it relied upon development of a new water-launched rocket, named Aquarius, which at a low cost price lessened its reliability.
All of a sudden we’ve reached a point in our history, where building spaceships is not abnormal. Granted, they don’t have to travel very far or carry many people, but there it is. No longer is space travel the prime property of NASA and other government space organizations.
Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.
