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Washington DC (SPX) Apr 19, 2011 NASA has awarded four Space Act Agreements in the second round of the agency's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) effort. Each company will receive between $22 million and $92.3 million to advance commercial crew space transportation system concepts and mature the design and development of elements of their systems, such as launch vehicles and spacecraft. The selectees for CCDev2 awards are: + Blue Origin, Kent, Wash., $22 million + Sierra Nevada Corporation, Louisville, Colo., $80 million + Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Hawthorne, Calif., $75 million + The Boeing Company, Houston, $92.3 million "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. "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." The goal of CCDev2 is to accelerate the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities and reduce the gap in American human spaceflight capability. Through this activity, NASA also may be able to spur economic growth as potential new space markets are created. Once developed, crew transportation capabilities could become available to commercial and government customers. "The next American-flagged vehicle to carry our astronauts into space is going to be a U.S. commercial provider," said 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." These awards are a continuation of NASA's CCDev initiatives, which began in 2009 to stimulate efforts within U.S. industry to develop and demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities.
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Related Links NASA's Commercial Crew Program http://procurement.ksc.nasa.gov/index.htm Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News
Russia's Medvedev Gives State Honors To CosmonautsMoscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Apr 13, 2011 President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday awarded state honors to some of Russia's most senior cosmonauts as Russia is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight. Fifty years ago, the Soviet Union became the first country to put a man into space when Yury Gagarin orbited Earth in 108 minutes in a Vostok-1 capsule. Cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka, Mikhail Korniyenko and Al ... read more |
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