COMSTAC Working Group Meeting Schedule October 13, 2011 COMSTAC Working Group meetings will take place at the National Housing Center, 1201 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. The COMSTAC meetings will be in Rooms A, B, and C. Time Session 8:00 am – 10:00 am Export Controls Working Group Michael Gold, Chair Director, D.C.Operations & Business Growth Bigelow Aerospace 10:00 am-12:00 pm Space Transportation Operations Working Group Debra Facktor Lepore, […]
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“commercial space”
The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) has sent a letter to the White House, Congress and Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong urging them to support NASA’s commercial space efforts. The letter has been signed by more than 300 students from across the nation.
DragonRider.
It sound like somebody in Avatar, doesn’t it? Or the code name of the evil plot hatched by the most nefarious James Bond villain yet?
No, it’s just the project name for SpaceX’s effort to launch commercial crews to the International Space Station. DragonRider was one of the nuggets that Abhishek Tripathi revealed during a talk at the SETI Institute in Mountain View on Wednesday night. The SpaceX engineer gave an overview of his company’s work and some insights on what it is like to work there.
A video from NASA focusing on commercial space transportation.
The Wall Street Journal visits Spaceport America in New Mexico.
When NASA released its CCDev 2 agreement with SpaceX, the space agency redacted the names of the company’s partners on human-rating the Dragon spacecraft. A recent PowerPoint presentation given by NASA official Maria Collura reveals them publicly. And the partners are…
Ahhhh, you didn’t think I’d tell you before the break, did you?
C’mon, click to continue reading. You’re dying to know…. 🙂
In a potential boost for commercial space, NASA is proposing changing its federal acquisition regulations to allow it to enter multi-year anchor tenancy contracts for commercial space goods and services.
The notice in the Federal Register states:
Anchor Tenancy is defined as “an arrangement in which the United States Government agrees to procure sufficient quantities of a commercial space product or service needed to meet Government mission requirements so that a commercial venture is made viable.” (more…)
Boeing's CST-100 crew transport. (Credit: Boeing)
Recently in The Space Review….
Transition to commercial services for LEO transportation
A major issue of contention for NASA’s near-term plans has been how much reliance it should place on commercial providers for crew transportation to low Earth orbit. Mary Lynne Dittmar presents a paper she prepared last year with the late Mike Lounge on one approach to handle that transition.
A new rocket for science
Much of the attention SpaceX’s proposed Falcon Heavy rocket has received has focused on its use in exploration or national security applications. Alan Stern notes that the rocket also has the potential to revolutionize science missions.
The dangers of a rocket to nowhere
The debate about the future development of a NASA heavy-lift launch vehicle drags on in Congress and industry. Lou Friedman warns this process could lead to no NASA human spaceflight program at all. (more…)
The DoD is proposing legal changes that would allow public/private partnerships to improve and expand its space capabilities and allow the military to directly support the commercial space sector as part of its mission.
Current law “limits DoD to accepting reimbursement from commercial space companies for excess capacity in the form of launch property, facilities, or direct support services,” according to a presentation made to the FAA yesterday. “DoD is not allowed to accept non-DoD funding to enable or improve operation of commercial space launch capabilities, augmentation of DoD capabilities for commercial purposes, or adding commercial requirements to DoD contracts to extend/expand services in support of commercial Space launch activities.”
XCOR CEO Jeff Greason
Jeff Greason
XCOR Aerospace
Observations on Status of Commercial Space
- We have not won yet
- What does winning mean? When we have a space transport industry that gets people and materials into space inexpensively enough so we can do something useful up there
- $100 to $500 per pound to LEO
- No suborbital passengers have flown yet
- Big question — is there a large enough market to support commercial orbital transportation — I don’t know — thinks that it will…