NASA landed its Curiosity rover safely on Mars Sunday evening. It is the largest and most ambitious mission ever launched to the Red Planet. It also used a novel sky crane system to lower the car-sized rover onto the surface. This system apparently worked flawlessly. I watched the landing with 2,000 people during the Planetary Society’s Planet Fest celebration at the Pasadena Convention Center. It was bedlam in here when […]
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook If you have been paying any attention to the on-going Presidential race, you’ve probably noticed that Republican candidate Mitt Romney has been a bit vague on what he would actually do if elected President. You’re not alone. So has Jon Stewart (video above) and the folks at Obama for America […]
Rep. Rob Bishop
There was no joy in Utah on Friday as ATK got shut out of NASA’s commercial crew awards. Awards went instead to Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation and SpaceX.
The company released the following statement:
ATK and the Liberty Team are disappointed that we were not selected by NASA for a Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Space Act Agreement. We continue to believe Liberty provides the safest, most cost-effective crew and cargo transportation systems, as well as the fastest path to recover America’s human launch capability and engage the workforce and facilities at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Flight Center and others. We look forward to a debriefing from NASA.
Meanwhile, Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop condemned the decision, attacked the Obama Administration for its poor space leadership, and promised an investigation in a written statement.
“I will be joining with [Utah] Senator [Orrin] Hatch, Senator [Mike] Lee as well as the rest of the delegation to further investigate every detail of how NASA arrived at today’s disappointing decision.”
Video Caption: On August 3, 2012, NASA announced agreements with three industry partners “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.” The award winners were The Boeing Company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and the Sierra Nevada Corporation. The event was webcast live by NASA and is in the public domain.
Reactions to NASA’s $1.1 billion in CCiCAP awards to Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corporation have been pouring into the Parabolic Arc world news headquarters in Mojave all day. Statements have come in by email, fax, phone, telegram, telegraph, teletype, carrier pigeon, and even Pony Express rider (some sort of weird space time continuum rift from a secret Navy project up at China Lake — you really don’t want to know more).
Below is a sampling of the reactions.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
“Today’s announcement shows that NASA has put together a thoughtful selection of companies and capabilities that we anticipate will culminate in a domestic capability to launch astronauts to the International Space Station.
This is consistent with the approach several of us in the Congress urged NASA to take, to ensure that the limited funds available are spent on developments that have a strong probability of success.
This is a step that should keep development of commercial crew capability on a schedule to launch as soon and as safely as possible while on a realistic budget. There now is a sensible path forward to enable a US launched crew capability for utilizing our investment in the space station.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in front of the Dragon capsule. (Credit: NASA)
Hawthorne, CA (SpaceX PR) – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) today won a $440 million contract with NASA to develop the successor to the Space Shuttle and transport American astronauts into space.
“This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration,” said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk. “SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown.”
SPARKS, Nev., Aug., 3, 2012 (SNC PR) – Eren Ozmen, President of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), is pleased to announce that the company’s Dream Chaser® Space System has been awarded $212.5 million as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Program. The 21 month contract will begin in August of 2012.
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