Dragon berthed at the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

SPACEX COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM

Overview

Company: SpaceX
Location: Hawthorne, Calif.
Spacecraft: Dragon
Type: Capsule with service module
Crew Capacity: 7
Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9
CCiCAP Funding (if all milestones met): $440 million
CCiCAP Term: 21 months
Previous CCDev Funding: $75 million
Previous COTS Funding: $396 million
Total COTS, CCDev and CCiCAP Funding (if all milestones met): $911 million

CCiCAP Milestones

SpaceX has 14 milestones to meet over the 21-month base period. The company will conclude the CCiCAP funding with an integrated critical design review in March 2014 followed by an in-flight abort test the following month.

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Crew seats inside the Dragon. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

HAWTHORNE, Calif., July 12, 2012 (SpaceX PR) — NASA partner Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed an important design review of the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The concept baseline review presented NASA with the primary and secondary design elements of its Dragon capsule designed to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.

SpaceX is one of several companies working to develop crew transportation capabilities under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreement with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). Through CCDev2, NASA is helping the private sector develop and test new spacecraft and rockets with the goal of making commercial human spaceflight services available to commercial and government customers.

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LOUISVILLE, Colo., July 11, 2012 (NASA PR) — NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has completed a successful test of the nose landing gear for its full-scale Dream Chaser engineering flight test vehicle. The completed test and an upcoming flight test are part of SNC’s Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreement with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

The gear test is an important milestone to prepare for the upcoming approach and landing test of the Dream Chaser Space System later this year. It evaluated the impact the nose landing gear will experience on touchdown in order to ensure a safe runway landing.
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Excalibur Almaz's space tourism vehicle concept. (Credit: Excalibur Almaz)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — Excalibur Almaz Inc. (EAI) has successfully completed its Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Through CCDev2, NASA is spurring innovation and development of safe, reliable and cost-effective spacecraft and launch vehicles capable of transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station.

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The fifth and final video spotlighting commercial crew competitors.

Fourth in a series of videos spotlighting commercial crew competitors.

Liberty cargo module being berthed at the International Space Station. (Credit: ATK)

ARLINGTON, Va., June 3, 2012 (ATK PR) -– ATK, the company leading development of the Liberty commercial spacecraft, is pleased to announce an expanded crew and cargo capability. The extended cargo configuration will allow the Liberty spacecraft to take full advantage of the launch vehicle lift capacity to transport a pressurized pod (the Liberty Logistics Module or LLM) along with the composite crew module.

Based on NASA’s 15-foot diameter Multi-Purpose Logistic Module design, the LLM will include a common berthing mechanism and will be capable of transporting up to 5,100 pounds of pressurized cargo. With that capability, the LLM could be used to transport four full-size science racks to the International Space Station – along with a team of scientists to perform the associated science.

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Former NASA Astronaut Ken Bowersox, who quit as SpaceX’s vice-president of Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance late last year, is now advising ATK on how to human-rate its Liberty rocket.

SALT LAKE CITY, July 2, 2012 (ATK PR) — ATK and the Liberty program announced an independent assessment team and their first tasking to advise the company on development of its commercial human certification plan for the Liberty system, which includes the launch vehicle, upper stage, abort system, composite spacecraft, ground and mission operations, crew and passenger training and a test flight crew.

The FAA is authorized by Congress to regulate commercial human spaceflight. Over the next few years, the FAA will use a phased approach to regulating the crew and passenger safety of the emerging commercial human spaceflight industry. In the meantime, and in the absence of specific government human certification standards, the developers themselves must look to NASA and International Partner human spaceflight best practices and lessons learned to develop their own design and operations criteria. Developing the Liberty-specific commercial human certification plan early in the program ensures the system will be designed from the outset to ensure flight crew and passenger safety.

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Third in a series of promotional videos spotlighting commercial crew competitors.