CCDev - NASA Commercial Crew Development

[Salo]

Ares-1 умер, но дело его живёт!

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110208-astrium-atk-ccdev2-bid.html

Tue, 8 February, 2011
Astrium, ATK Team Up on CCDev-2 Bid[/size]
By Peter B. de Selding and Amy Svitak

    PARIS and WASHINGTON — The prime contractors for Europe's Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket and the U.S. space shuttle's solid-rocket boosters have agreed to design a rocket to carry crew and cargo into orbit in a bid to win a contract under NASA's Commercial Crew Development-2 (CCDev-2) procurement, the two companies announced Feb. 8.

    Under the agreement, whose technical and cost details have yet to be fully calculated, Astrium Space Transportation would provide a derivative of the Ariane 5 main cryogenic stage to Minneapolis-based Alliant TechSystems (ATK), which would place the European stage atop an ATK-built five-segment solid-rocket first stage.

    The companies said they could field a vehicle, dubbed Liberty, quickly enough for a 2013 inaugural flight, with a second flight in 2014.

    "This team represents the true sense of international partnership in that we looked across borders to find the best for our customers," Blake Larson, president of ATK Aerospace Systems Group, said in a Feb. 8 statement. "Together we combine unique flight-proven systems and commercial experience that allows us to offer the market's most capable launch vehicle along with flexibility to meet a wide variety of emerging needs. Liberty provides greater performance at less cost than any other comparable launch vehicle."

    Silvio Sandrone, vice president of business development at Les Mureaux, France-based Astrium Space Transportation, said the first step in the collaboration will be a detailed study of the feasibility of placing the Ariane 5 main stage atop the ATK stage. One key difference for the Astrium-provided stage would be that, in the ATK configuration, it would be ignited in orbit, not on the ground as it is for Ariane 5 launches.

    A second key development parameter will be to "human rate" the Ariane 5 stage so that it meets NASA's safety criteria for transporting astronauts. While the initial Ariane 5 design was for a human-rated vehicle — Europe had envisioned its own space shuttle at the time — the current version would require several modifications to be deemed acceptable for human transport.

    In a Feb. 8 interview, Sandrone said the political obstacles to the ATK-Astrium Liberty vehicle may be more difficult than the technical work. While the U.S. government regularly uses the Atlas 5 rocket, whose first-stage engine is Russian-built, the future NASA crew-transport rocket will have "a higher visibility" and may therefore generate opposition in the United States due to its non-U.S. content, he said.

    Astrium, for its part, has informed the French space agency, CNES; the French arms-procurement agency, DGA; and the 18-nation European Space Agency of its discussions with ATK and anticipates no difficulties in securing the requisite export licenses.

    Sandrone said Astrium has not given detailed price estimates to ATK. Nonetheless, he said, the idea of using an existing rocket stage, with a reliable flight history and existing six- or seven-unit annual production run, should enable the ATK-Astrium team to propose prices that fit within NASA's requirements.

[ronatu]

Ракета "Арес I", которая должна была доставить астронавтов на Луну в рамках американской программы возвращения на спутник "Созвездие", может лечь в основу нового дешевого космического транспорта. Его созданием займутся две компании, которые рассчитывают получить часть денег, выделенных NASA на частную космонавтику. Коротко о проекте пишет газета The New York Times.
Разработкой ракеты-носителя под названием Liberty ("Свобода") займутся американская компания Alliant Techsystems (ATK) и европейская фирма Astrium. ATK, в числе прочего, производит двигатели для космических шаттлов, а Astrium является создателем ракеты-носителя "Ариан-5" (Arian-5).

Производство 90-метровой "Свободы" должно обойтись дешевле, чем производство "Аресов", так как верхняя ступень новой ракеты, построенной на базе "Арес I" будет заменена на ступень ракеты "Ариан-5". Нижняя ступень останется без изменений, но она представляет собой несколько модифицированную версию твердотопливного ускорителя шаттлов. Конструкторы рассчитывают, что ракета сможет доставлять на орбиту научное оборудование, профессиональных астронавтов, а также космических туристов.

США отказались от планов возвращения на Луну и соответственно от создания необходимых для этого космического корабля и ракеты в феврале 2010 года. Новая стратегия развития американской космонавтики предполагает, что немалую роль в освоении космоса будут играть частные компании. Две из них - SpaceX и Orbital Sciences - уже получили от агентства по 50 миллионов долларов на разработку нового космического грузовика. Еще 200 миллионов NASA должно распределить в январе - деньги получат компании, разрабатывающие наиболее перспективные проекты. ATK и Astrium рассчитывают получить часть этих средств - первый запуск "Свободы" должен состояться уже в 2013 году.

В декабре 2010 года состоялся первый пуск частного космического корабля. Созданный компанией SpaceX аппарат Dragon сделал два витка вокруг планеты и приводнился в Тихом океане.

http://lenta.ru/news/2011/02/08/rocket/

[ronatu]

Ракета "Арес I", которая должна была доставить астронавтов на Луну в рамках американской программы возвращения на спутник "Созвездие", может лечь в основу нового дешевого космического транспорта. Его созданием займутся две компании, которые рассчитывают получить часть денег, выделенных NASA на частную космонавтику. Коротко о проекте пишет газета The New York Times.
Разработкой ракеты-носителя под названием Liberty ("Свобода") займутся американская компания Alliant Techsystems (ATK) и европейская фирма Astrium. ATK, в числе прочего, производит двигатели для космических шаттлов, а Astrium является создателем ракеты-носителя "Ариан-5" (Arian-5).

Производство 90-метровой "Свободы" должно обойтись дешевле, чем производство "Аресов", так как верхняя ступень новой ракеты, построенной на базе "Арес I" будет заменена на ступень ракеты "Ариан-5". Нижняя ступень останется без изменений, но она представляет собой несколько модифицированную версию твердотопливного ускорителя шаттлов. Конструкторы рассчитывают, что ракета сможет доставлять на орбиту научное оборудование, профессиональных астронавтов, а также космических туристов.

США отказались от планов возвращения на Луну и соответственно от создания необходимых для этого космического корабля и ракеты в феврале 2010 года. Новая стратегия развития американской космонавтики предполагает, что немалую роль в освоении космоса будут играть частные компании. Две из них - SpaceX и Orbital Sciences - уже получили от агентства по 50 миллионов долларов на разработку нового космического грузовика. Еще 200 миллионов NASA должно распределить в январе - деньги получат компании, разрабатывающие наиболее перспективные проекты. ATK и Astrium рассчитывают получить часть этих средств - первый запуск "Свободы" должен состояться уже в 2013 году.

В декабре 2010 года состоялся первый пуск частного космического корабля. Созданный компанией SpaceX аппарат Dragon сделал два витка вокруг планеты и приводнился в Тихом океане.

http://lenta.ru/news/2011/02/08/rocket/



An artist's conception of the proposed Liberty rocket, which would combine components of the Ares I and Ariane 5 rockets.

The Liberty could also solve other issues. Launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it would generate about 300 jobs and make use of facilities that might otherwise sit idle after the space shuttles are retired this year. The Atlas V launches from the neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force station.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1102/13ulaccdev/

Safety system tested for Atlas and Delta rockets[/size]
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: February 13, 2011

WASHINGTON -- United Launch Alliance is seeking funding from NASA this year to finish designing a key safety system for potential commercial crew launches on its Atlas and Delta rocket fleet, officials said last week.


Artist's concept of the Atlas 5 rocket with a Boeing CST-100 crew capsule. Boeing says its commercial crew spacecraft will be operational in 2015. Credit: Boeing
 
The company is human-rating the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets to launch astronauts inside privately-built spacecraft. NASA is partnering with ULA and spacecraft builders to carry U.S. astronauts into orbit by 2015.
After receiving $6.7 million from NASA last year, ULA kicked off the design of a health-monitoring computer to identify rocket failures in time to save crews.
George Sowers, ULA's vice president of business development, said the company developed a prototype Emergency Detection System last year and tested the design in a high-fidelity simulation lab in Denver.
The company, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., invited NASA officials and astronauts to participate in flight simulations of the Emergency Detection System, or EDS. The system is a computer designed to recognize an impending mishap and trigger an abort to pull astronauts away.
The goal, Sowers says, is to have the EDS ready to go when spacecraft builders start launching manned missions on the Atlas 5 or Delta 4.
"Most of our spacecraft are talking 2014 at the earliest for crewed flight, so we're trying to protect that 2014 date," Sowers said.
ULA is revamping its existing rockets to launch commercial manned payloads. Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. have already issued subcontracts to ULA to begin studying how to launch their proposed spacecraft.
Boeing is designing a seven-person capsule named the CST-100, and Sierra Nevada is working on a lifting body space plane called the Dream Chaser. Orbital Sciences Corp. is also interested in launching its proposed Prometheus space plane on an Atlas 5 rocket.
Sowers said ULA is working with every potential spacecraft provider except for SpaceX, which plans to launch the manned Dragon capsule on its own Falcon 9 rocket.
Orbital and Boeing claim their spacecraft will be ready to launch by 2015. Sierra Nevada says 2014 is the earliest the Dream Chaser will be operational.


File photo of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket launching in November 2010. Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance
 
Speaking to commercial space pioneers and executives assembled here Thursday, ULA's top executive called for advancing the availability of all commercial transportation systems to 2014.
"I think we need to stretch our goals to have commercial crew service operating by 2014," said Michael Gass, ULA's president and CEO.
Gass said ULA will be ready to meet that schedule.
ULA officials do not expect making any major changes to the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets, which have amassed a combined 38 flights and enjoy a reliable track record.
The EDS is the most significant modification required for either launch vehicle, Sowers said.
"We think the rocket we already have will meet NASA's requirements," Sowers said. "We haven't proven that yet. We have to go through that process with NASA and do all the certification."
Changes to ground infrastructure might be needed to accommodate a higher flight rate and give crews access to board their spacecraft.
The most likely manned payload for the Delta 4 rocket will be the government-owned Orion capsule. Now considered to be a space station lifeboat and potential deep space exploration vehicle, the Orion could launch atop Delta boosters from modified space shuttle facilities at the Kennedy Space Center.
Commercial operators are gravitating toward the Atlas 5, which ULA hopes to keep flying from launch pad 41, the home of its unmanned satellite missions.
The EDS is the centerpiece of ULA's commercial crew program, which encompasses about 40 employees.
"The Emergency Detection System, just like its name says, is there to perceive an emergency with the rocket," Sowers said. "It sends a command to the spacecraft, which would initiate the launch abort system."
Spending a mix of private and public funds, ULA developed and demonstrated prototype EDS crew displays monitored by NASA mission control teams during a real Atlas 5 launch in August.
The EDS passed a major milestone Dec. 8 with an abort demonstration inside ULA's simulation lab, a computer-controlled system that gauges how systems respond to failures. ULA announced the milestone this week in conjunction with the FAA Commercial Space Transportation conference here.
The Dec. 8 demo included four failure scenarios, including a fast- and slow-developing anomaly in Atlas 5's first and second stages.
"It's fun to do these simulated failures," Sowers said. "We haven't had an Atlas failure since 1993, and in one day we had four simulated fast and slow failure modes in the first and second stage phases of flights -- a fast failure being something like sudden loss of thrust and a slow failure being something like a degradation of pressure. The system was able to detect all four of those failures and abort in time."
ULA is partnering with NASA and other firms to usher in an era of commercial space travel. After the retirement of the space shuttle, NASA plans to move away from government-run space transportation and purchase services from industry.
"I think we can easily beat the objective of providing crew and cargo support to the space station for less than 50 percent of the cost of the shuttle," Gass said.
NASA is investing in private partners with the Commercial Crew Development, or CCDev, program to provide government funds to companies designing and building human-rated rockets and spacecraft. Last year's $6.7 million award was part of the first round of the CCDev competition.
Sowers said private firms are closely looking at launches on the Atlas 5 rocket in its so-called "402" configuration, which features two RL10 upper stage engines and no solid rocket boosters.


Simulated view of a Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser space plane and the Centaur upper stage of an Atlas 5 rocket. Credit: United Launch Alliance
 
Engineers can program the Atlas 5 rocket's Russian main engine to throttle, limiting launch accelerations to about four times gravity.
Jeff Ashby, a former space shuttle astronaut, strapped into a centrifuge at the National Aerospace Training and Research center in Philadelphia to experience what it would be like to blast off on an Atlas 5 booster.
Ashby weathered the ride well, offering design inputs on the placement of checklists, control panels and switches in the cockpit of commercial vehicles.
NASA approved an extension of ULA's ongoing work through April, several months later than the development's original end date in December.
In the meantime, NASA is on the verge of awarding about $200 million to private companies in the second CCDev competition. The agency expects to announce the CCDev 2 winners in late March.
ULA hopes to spend its winnings on further design of the emergency computer, which is about the size of a microwave oven. The company will also seek a supplier to build the EDS, Sowers said.
The EDS will have to be put through checkouts to make sure it will survive the launch environment, then ULA plans to put the computer on unmanned rocket launches for flight testing.
"Fundamentally, it's about a three-year design and development process," Sowers said. "We've done one year and we need a couple of more years before we actually put it on a rocket."

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110404-ccdev2-awards-expected.html

Mon, 4 April, 2011
CCDev-2 Awards Expected to Total Roughly $270 Million[/size]
By Amy Svitak

    WASHINGTON — NASA expects to award roughly $270 million April 6 to multiple contractors seeking to refine designs for launchers and spacecraft that would transport astronauts to and from low Earth orbit on a commercial basis, according to government and industry sources.

    The space agency is still awaiting congressional action on its 2011 budget request, which proposed spending $500 million on commercial crew initiatives this year. Absent a congressional appropriation in the current budget year, however, NASA announced in October that it expected to award just $200 million in its second round of Commercial Crew Development (CCDev 2) agreements this spring.

    With the latest in a series of stopgap spending measures designed to keep the federal government operating set to expire April 8, the budget picture remains unclear. However, the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law in October, recommended appropriating $312 million for commercial crew efforts in 2011, providing a level of support for upping the ante on the CCDev 2 awards, industry and government sources said.

    NASA in February contacted eight companies that had submitted bids for CCDev 2 money: Alliant Techsystems, Blue Origin, Boeing, Excalibur Almaz, Orbital Sciences Corp., Sierra Nevada Corp., Space Exploration Technologies and United Launch Alliance. The companies were invited to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss the proposals they submitted in December.

    NASA is expected to name at least four winners in the latest round of CCDev 2 agreements, according to industry sources.

    NASA started the CCDev program in 2009 with $50 million in seed money awarded to a mix of five new and established aerospace firms including Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada and United Launch Alliance. The companies used the funding to refine technologies in support of Obama's plan to nurture a private market for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit.

[Salo]

http://www.comspacewatch.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33167

Date Released: Monday, April 4, 2011
Source: Commercial Spaceflight Federation

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Responds to Recent Aerospace Corporation White Paper on NASA's Commercial Crew Program[/size]

Washington, D.C., April 4, 2011 - The Commercial Spaceflight Federation released the following statement on the Aerospace Corporation's Space Launch Projects Group/Launch System Division's recent white paper on the business case of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, entitled "The Financial Feasibility and a Reliability Based Acquisition Approach for Commercial Crew":

NASA's Commercial Crew Program is a critical program for NASA's future, serving as the fastest way to regain an American capability to fly astronauts to the Space Station and resulting in significant savings to US taxpayers. While the Commercial Spaceflight Federation agrees with the Aerospace Corporation's Space Launch Projects Group on its recognition of the importance of commercial spaceflight to NASA, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation finds many of the model inputs, assumptions and assertions in the white paper to be incorrect or inaccurate, and strongly disagrees with the white paper's resulting conclusions.

As the authors of the white paper state, "The model and the results cannot validate the detail [sic] financials of any one commercial enterprise." Without appropriate inputs and assumptions, models cannot and should not be interpreted as generating real-world findings.

The white paper authors did not consult with industry in the course of their work, resulting in significant inaccuracies in the model inputs and assumptions. The white paper authors did not seek out real-world cost data, business case financials, or market assessments from potential commercial crew providers, such as United Launch Alliance, Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, Blue Origin, or others, nor did they contact the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The white paper authors likewise did not consult any of the private investors who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the commercial spaceflight industry based on this proprietary information. As a result, many of the model inputs and assumptions used in the white paper are erroneous, contributing to conclusions that are incorrect and inaccurate.

The white paper primarily focuses on hypothetical spacecraft that are unlike those actually being developed. The white paper findings almost entirely revolve around the business case for spacecraft that have 4 seats, while most of the leading contenders for the Commercial Crew Program are developing vehicles with a capacity of 7 seats, including Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corporation. For a given launch cost, a 7-seat capacity results in a significantly lower cost when compared with a 4-seat capacity.

The white paper assumes that commercial providers would sell seats to space tourists at a loss, but gives no explanation as to why a commercial business would sell its products or services at a loss. The commercial spaceflight industry categorically rejects this notion. Industry further rejects the white paper's additional notion that commercial providers would then increase rates to the government to subsidize that loss. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation strongly disagrees with any of the white paper's conclusions arising from these inexplicable assumptions.

The white paper ignores cases where sales of seats to other customers would actually decrease the per-seat cost to NASA. As one example, the white paper ignored the case where NASA purchases 4 seats on board a spacecraft that has a capacity of 7 seats. Should no other customers participate, those three seats would fly empty, and NASA would pay the full cost of the flight. However, if those empty seats are sold to other parties, the increased revenue from the flight could decrease the per-seat cost to NASA. Alternatively, the extra volume and payload mass could be sold to NASA as room for additional cargo, generating additional revenue.

The white paper assumes a large fixed cost of $400 million per year per company, but gives no basis for this number. This assumed fixed cost, which would be in addition to the marginal cost of a given flight, is a primary driver for many of the resulting findings of the white paper. Industry believes this number to be a significant over-estimate. By comparison, SpaceX's total expenditures over eight-and-a-half years as a company since it was founded are less than $800 million. That includes the cost of developing two new launch vehicles from scratch (Falcon 1 and Falcon 9), developing the Dragon spacecraft, conducting seven launches, including an orbital test flight of Dragon, and building out the infrastructure for two separate launch sites. It is highly unlikely that an additional $400 million per year in fixed costs would be required to conduct human spaceflight missions. The Aerospace Corporation typically uses cost models based on historical costs of government systems, and is not equipped to do cost analysis for commercially developed systems, such as with the NASA Commercial Crew and COTS Cargo development programs.

The large assumed fixed cost appears to include significant double counting. Launch vehicle fixed costs are distributed between all launch vehicle customers, including: DoD and intelligence community national security missions, NASA science missions, commercial satellite missions, NASA technology demo missions, and unmanned cargo missions. It is unclear if the white paper author's fixed-cost number accounts for these effects. In addition, this fixed-cost number is assumed to be a constant $400 million per company even when there are multiple winners, despite the fact that multiple winners may share launch vehicles, launch site infrastructure, training and medical facilities, recovery vessels, or other major components of fixed-cost estimates.

The white paper ignores the possibility of reductions in cost due to reusability. The Boeing CST-100, the SpaceX Dragon, and the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser have all been explicitly designed to be reusable, which would result in a significant reduction in the marginal cost of each mission. The white paper made no effort to include this additional source of cost reductions.

The white paper ignores the "sovereign client" market entirely. The "sovereign client" market is well-established, and is defined as the sale of seats to other space agencies, other national governments, or similar entities. By some estimates, this market could be equal to or larger than the orbital space tourist market. Since 1978, the United States and Russia have flown almost 100 guest astronauts representing 30 countries, either in exchange for in-kind services or for payment. There remains significant pent-up demand for additional spaceflight missions within these countries, and almost 150 nations have never had a citizen fly in space. At least eight countries have active duty astronauts who have yet to fly in space and who are not currently manifested to fly on the Space Shuttle or Soyuz. An example of this international interest is represented by the work of Bigelow Aerospace, which has already signed a number of MOUs with national space agencies, government entities, and companies in a diverse array of countries including the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and the Netherlands.

The white paper likely underestimates the demand for orbital space tourism to a significant degree. According to at least one study (Futron Space Tourism Market Study, 2002), the white paper authors significantly underestimate the demand for space tourist seats. For example, the white paper assumes only 20 people in the world are willing to pay $30 million per seat. There are currently approximately 30,000 people in the world worth $100 million or more who could purchase such a ticket. Given that past experience shows people are willing to spend a significant fraction of their personal net worth in order to fly in space, such a minute market penetration seems unrealistic.

The white paper assumes a NASA demand of only 8 seats per year, which may significantly underestimate NASA's demand over the long term. By comparison, NASA's current demand for seats is approximately 40 seats to space per year, either through flights of the Space Shuttle or through Soyuz seat purchases. It is reasonable to expect that with a robust, cost-effective U.S. commercial crew capability with large seat capacities, the government may in the future seek to restore NASA's astronaut flights to 2010 levels in order to fully utilize the Space Station, to ensure a return on the $100 billion investment made in its construction, and to retain the national prestige that comes with having a vibrant astronaut corps.

The white paper ignores the potential for multiple winners to significantly keep development and operations costs low. The white paper does not model how competition in the market place would result in lower prices and work to prevent the significant cost overruns and schedule slips that have been the historic norm for government programs with a single winner. The virtuous cycle of increased demand from NASA and other governments that would then result from these lower costs is likewise not modeled.

The white paper underestimates the rate of price increases by the Soyuz. The white paper assumes Soyuz prices are increasing at the rate of 5% per year and will have an average price of only $70 million per seat over 10 years of operations. In reality, Soyuz prices have recently increased at the rate of 9-13% per year. Even at steady (linear) increases of seat prices, current increases indicate an average price over 10 years of $87 million, a price level 24% higher than the price assumed by the white paper.

The white paper refers to the EELV's as "government developed systems", yet these systems were in fact commercially developed under a program structured almost identically to COTS and Commercial Crew. The EELV's were developed using Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreements, with a fixed investment by the U.S. Air Force supplemented by private investment in order to meet government requirements. Both EELVs, have had a distinguished record of success, with Atlas V having launched 24 of 24 flights successfully and Delta IV having launched 15 of 15 successfully.

In conclusion, any model that does not make use of appropriate assumptions or real-world data will be of limited use. Given that the commercial spaceflight industry finds many of the model inputs, assumptions and assertions in the white paper to be incorrect or inaccurate, no findings or conclusions from the white paper's analysis should be considered accurate or of significance in any real-world setting without significant further review and industry input.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever-higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation's member companies, which include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers, are creating thousands of high-tech jobs nationwide, working to preserve American leadership in aerospace through technology innovation, and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. For more information please visit www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110406-commercial-market-study-firestorm.html

Commercial Crew Market Study Generates Small Firestorm[/size]
By Amy Svitak

    WASHINGTON — NASA is downplaying the significance of a recent study by the Aerospace Corp. that concludes the agency could pay up to $20 billion over 15 years to foster private development and operation of a single, viable commercial crew transportation system.

    According to the federally funded research group's findings, presented Feb. 28 to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and Associate Administrator Christopher Scolese, the agency's out-of-pocket cost to ferry astronauts between Earth and the international space station aboard privately developed space taxis could exceed $100 million per seat — significantly more than the agency currently pays to fly astronauts to the orbiting outpost aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

    NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said the Aerospace Corp. analysis, paid for by the agency's Independent Program and Cost Evaluation office, led by Michael Hawes, is one of many commissioned to assess the business case for private space taxis.

    "The Aerospace Corporation used their own assumptions for many of the inputs to the analysis; they did not use proprietary data inputs from companies developing commercial crew systems or from NASA, which makes their analysis of limited use," Braukus said in a April 5 email, one day after a set of Aerospace Corp. briefing charts on the study surfaced on NASA Watch.

    The Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), an advocacy group here, blasted the report's assumptions as not based in reality, and said many of its findings are flawed.

    "Given that the commercial spaceflight industry finds many of the model inputs, assumptions and assertions in the white paper to be incorrect or inaccurate, no findings or conclusions from the white paper's analysis should be considered accurate or of significance in any real-world setting without significant further review and industry input," the group said in a lengthy rebuttal issued April 4.

    Specifically, the CSF said the Aerospace study is focused on hypothetical spacecraft rather than vehicles currently in development; assumes private tickets for seats aboard space taxis would be sold at a loss; uses an arbitrary fixed-cost estimate of $400 million per company; ignores potential cost savings that could result from vehicle reusability; underestimates both commercial and NASA demand for seats aboard privately built spacecraft; fails to account for the increasing per-seat cost of Soyuz flights; and characterizes the U.S. Air Force's Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets as government-developed systems. The CSF said the program under which those vehicles were developed has more in common with commercial initiatives like NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.

    Los Angeles-based Aerospace Corp., in an undated explanation of the study and its methodology, said the analysis was merely intended to develop a modeling tool that could be applied to a variety of data.

    "The results shown to NASA and Congress recently were not intended to represent any specific real world scenario," the company said in a memo obtained by Space News. "We modeled a scenario utilizing data from as long as 10 months ago in order to demonstrate the tool's viability, not the viability of any specific commercial crew transportation system."

    Aerospace Corp. said it initiated the work on its own in late 2009. Some time later Hawes' office asked for, and funded, an expanded and refined analysis of the initial work, which relied on historical data to develop its business-case model.

    "The results were not expected to reflect what the commercial community has been developing," the Aerospace memo says, adding that different assumptions could be used "to produce significantly different results."

    Meanwhile, Braukus said, NASA is wrapping up a much more comprehensive commercial market analysis that was called for in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. "The Aerospace report was a completely different type of analysis than what was requested in the Authorization Act for the Commercial Market Assessment," Braukus said in the email. "The objective of the Aerospace work, as it was described in the report, was 'to provide ballpark results for what it would take to make a stand alone private enterprise business case close.'"

    Braukus said the objective of the congressionally mandated assessment is to examine the potential nongovernment market for commercially developed crew and cargo transportation systems and capabilities.

    "Thus, NASA does not intend to incorporate any results from the Aerospace work into the Commercial Market Assessment," he said. "However, we will compare its findings to other studies or analyses of the business case for commercial crew," such as those performed by Futron Corp. and SAIC, he said.

[frigate]

Товарищи студенты (No offense  ), не забываем про первоисточики  :!:
The Financial Feasibility and a Reliability Based Acquisition Approach for Commercial Crew -
Presentation to Administrator Bolden John Skratt, The Aerospace Corporation

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110418-ccdev-awards-expected-today.html

Mon, 18 April, 2011
CCDev Awards Expected Today[/size]
By Amy Svitak

    WASHINGTON — NASA expects to award nearly $300 million in Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) agreements to multiple providers April 18 to continue work on launchers and spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from low Earth orbit on a commercial basis.

    NASA announced last October that it expected to make the CCDev 2 awards this spring. In February the agency invited eight companies to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss proposals they submitted in December: Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Blue Origin, Boeing, Excalibur Almaz, Orbital Sciences Corp., Sierra Nevada Corp., Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and United Launch Alliance (ULA).

    A callback is no guarantee of an award; NASA is expected to name at least four winners of second-round, CCDev 2 agreements, according to industry sources.

    Announcement of the awards was expected April 6, but government and industry sources said that was put on hold until Congress approved a stopgap spending measure April 14 that will fund federal agencies, including NASA, through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. The 2011 appropriation, known as a continuing resolution, includes $3.8 billion for NASA's exploration systems development office, which funds commercial crew initiatives.

    NASA started the CCDev program in 2009 with $50 million in seed money awarded to a mix of five new and established aerospace firms, including Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada and ULA. The companies used the funding to refine technologies in support of U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to nurture commercial services for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit.

[Петр Зайцев]

Гэри Хадсон выложил презенташку своей концепции, которая сегодня проиграла конкурс. Выглядит довольно любопытно и можно сказать нетрадиционно.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24859.0

[ronatu]

Гэри Хадсон выложил презенташку своей концепции, которая сегодня проиграла конкурс. Выглядит довольно любопытно и можно сказать нетрадиционно.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24859.0

NASA. Year 2000

[Salo]

http://cybersecurity.ru/space/120729.html

НАСА выделяет 270 млн долларов частным американским космическим подрядчикам[/size]
(02:24) 19.04.2011

Американское космическое агентство НАСА выделило очередную порцию грантов четырем компания, работающим по программе развития американской пилотируемой космонавтики. Четыре компании, в том числе Boeing и SpaceX, получили в общей сложности 270 млн долларов. Согласно данным НАСА, больше всего денег - 92,3 млн долларов - получила компания Boeing, которая недавно начала вторую часть программы по созданию коммерческого пилотируемого корабля CCDev2.

Компания Sierra Nevada Corp, ведущая разработки собственного космического шаттла DreamChaser, получила 80 млн долларов из госбюджета США. Еще 75 млн долларов получила компания SpaceX, недавно завершившая испытания по выведению своей космической капсулы Dragon. Напомним, что компания на собственной ракете-носителе вывела Dragon на околоземную орбиту, после чего Dragon обогнула нашу планету по кругу и приземлилась в Тихом океане.

Наконец, 22 млн долларов получила компания Blue Origin, также работающая по программе развития частной космонавтики.

"Эти соглашения чрезвычайно важны для НАСА. Они позволяют сохранить присутствие Америки на околоземной орбите в ближайшие годы, тогда как само НАСА сконцентрируется на подготовке программ межпланетных полетов", - сказал директор космического агентства Чарльз Болден.

Напомним, что находящимся более 30 лет в эксплуатации космическим шаттлам осталось совершить всего два полета - в апреле (шаттл Эндевор) и и июне (шаттл Атлантис), после чего американские астронавты будут доставляться на МКС на российских "Союзах" и в будущем, возможно, на частных американских пилотируемых аппаратах.

[Bell]

Гэри Хадсон выложил презенташку своей концепции, которая сегодня проиграла конкурс. Выглядит довольно любопытно и можно сказать нетрадиционно.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24859.0

NASA. Year 2000

Тоже мне, "нетрадиционно"...

[Сторонний]

Гэри Хадсон выложил презенташку своей концепции, которая сегодня проиграла конкурс. Выглядит довольно любопытно и можно сказать нетрадиционно.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24859.0

NASA. Year 2000

Тоже мне, "нетрадиционно"...

Вообще, это форма ГЧ МБР на раннем этапе развития.
 "Юбка" обеспечивает стабилизацию при входе в атмосферу, а сферический нос уменьшает тепловую нагрузку.

[Старый]

Гэри Хадсон выложил презенташку своей концепции, которая сегодня проиграла конкурс. Выглядит довольно любопытно и можно сказать нетрадиционно.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24859.0

NASA. Year 2000

Лавры Кистлера К-1 не дают этим "нетрадиционщикам"покоя?

[Петр Зайцев]

А еще мне жаль, что Прометей проиграл. Не верю я сьерравцам, а орбитальцам верю. По-моему, когда Бенсон умер, у них там все пошло наперекос. Но NASA со мной не согласилось, ну да и бог же с ними.

[Потусторонний]

Гэри Хадсон выложил презенташку своей концепции, которая сегодня проиграла конкурс. Выглядит довольно любопытно и можно сказать нетрадиционно.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=24859.0

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=24859.0;attach=284887
Порадовало с самого начала :lol:

И еще мне нравится вертолетный подхват (ну хотя-бы как идея)

[Петр Зайцев]

Порадовало с самого начала :lol:

Ну и неправильно. У Союза есть БО, а здесь проходной ПАО как на ТКС. Так что это Челомей "got it right".

[Потусторонний]

Я порадовался за "Великий и могучий" :lol:
А запуск будет без ГО? Такие черные кочерыжки наверху?

Все познается в сравнении

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/asd/2011/04/19/02.xml&headline=NASA%20Provides%20Seed%20Money%20For%20CCDev-2

NASA Provides Seed Money For CCDev-2[/size]

Apr 19, 2011
 
By Frank Morring, Jr.

NASA has dished out generous helpings of seed money to four companies for work on commercial crew vehicles in the second round of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2), advancing a total of $269.3 million to mature concepts for private spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and other low-Earth-orbit destinations.

Boeing was the big winner in CCDev-2, getting $92.3 million on top of the $18 million it won last year. Sierra Nevada Corp., last year's top winner, will get $80 million to go with the $20 million it received in 2010.

Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX), which already has flown its Dragon cargo capsule to orbit and back, has been granted $75 million to develop a launch abort system and other hardware so the Dragon can carry crew. Blue Origin, the secretive startup organized by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, was allotted $22 million to continue work on its vertical takeoff and landing craft.

"We're committed to safely transporting U.S. astronauts on American-made spacecraft and ending the outsourcing of this work to foreign governments," stated NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in the April 18 press release announcing the awards. "These agreements are significant milestones in NASA's plans to take advantage of American ingenuity to get to low Earth orbit, so we can concentrate our resources on deep space exploration."

Boeing has produced its first test article for the CST-100 capsule it is building with CCDev-1 and -2 funds, matched with corporate money. Similarly, Sierra Nevada is building composite structures for its Dream Chaser lifting body vehicle. Both can be launched on a variety of launch vehicles.

SpaceX is using its own Falcon 9 rocket to launch the Dragon, while the Blue Origin's New Shepherd vehicle uses internal engines after the fashion of the old DC-XA testbed.

Losing out in the selection were Orbital Sciences, which like SpaceX is under contract to build a commercial cargo vehicle — Cygnus — to supply the ISS, and has started a separate lifting-body effort for commercial crew. ATK, which had teamed with Europe's EADS Astrium to propose a vehicle dubbed Liberty that would use the five-segment solid-fuel first stage developed for the defunct Ares I rocket and an Ariane 5 main stage conversion as its upper stage, also lost out.

"The next American-flagged vehicle to carry our astronauts into space is going to be a U.S. commercial provider," stated Ed Mango, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager. "The partnerships NASA is forming with industry will support the development of multiple American systems capable of providing future access to low Earth orbit."

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110418-nasa-announces-ccdev-awards.html

Mon, 18 April, 2011
NASA Announces CCDev 2 Awards[/size]
By Warren Ferster

    WASHINGTON — Boeing Co. garnered the largest of four NASA Space Act Agreement awards designed to nurture the development of commercially operated astronaut transport systems, landing a deal worth $92.3 million to refine the design of its CST-100 crew capsule, the U.S. space agency announced April 18.

    The other winners of NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) 2 awards are: Blue Origin, $22 million; Sierra Nevada Corp., $80 million; and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), $75 million. The awards are intended to help the companies refine their concepts for transporting astronauts to and from the international space station on a commercial basis.

    With the exception of SpaceX, all of the selected companies received NASA funding under the first round of CCDev awards, made in 2009. SpaceX is already under contract to develop and provide a commercial logistics service for the space station.

    NASA received 22 CCDev 2 bids from industry in December. Among the bidders not selected for second round awards are: Alliant Techsystems, Orbital Sciences Corp., United Launch Alliance and United Space Alliance.

    "We're committed to safely transporting U.S. astronauts on American-made spacecraft and ending the outsourcing of this work to foreign governments," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a prepared statement. "These agreements are significant milestones in NASA's plans to take advantage of American ingenuity to get to low-Earth orbit, so we can concentrate our resources on deep space exploration."

    Ed Mango, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said in a statement that the space agency will support the development of multiple U.S. astronaut transport systems that will be available to government and commercial customers.

    In a press release, Boeing said it would use the CCDev 2 funding to reduce risk on its Crew Space Transportation (CST) -100 capsule. "We are combining lessons learned and best practices from commercial airplanes, satellites and launch systems with those from human spaceflight programs such as the space shuttle and the International Space Station to design, deliver and fly the CST-100 in 2015," John Elbon, vice president and program manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Programs, said in a prepared statement.