Washington, D.C., Wednesday, November 2, 2011 – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to welcome recent expressions of growing support for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program in hearings and other events held over the last week, including the following:

Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology: In a hearing last week on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Congressman Hall stated, “NASA’s in an emergency; our space program’s in an emergency.  We can do better than those dates, I think … Somebody just needs to say… “let’s go” and I think you [commercial companies] all are the ones to do it and I hope you will.” [Oct 26]

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California): In that same hearing, Congresswoman Lofgren stated, “I’ve been enthusiastically supporting this effort” and “the payoff is so enormous.”  Later, Congresswoman Lofgren asked, “Is there any possibility that we could significantly reduce that timeframe [for flight] … with the private sector involvement that we have?”  The companies in attendance stated they could have crew transportation capability by 2015 with sufficient support from NASA. [Oct 26]

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida), Chairman of the Science and Space Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, Transportation Committee: In an event in Florida earlier this week, Senator Nelson stated, “This is just the first of much to come.  You just wait until you see what’s coming here to the Kennedy Space Center in the future in the way of public/private partnerships.”  He then added, “This marks the beginning of the vibrance of the economy of the Space Coast, the return of new and exciting jobs.” [Oct 31]

Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Florida): At that same event, Congresswoman Adams stated, “The Commercial Crew Development program is the best near term hope we have for getting American astronauts, on American rockets, built by an American aerospace workforce to the International Space Station.  The recent failure of a Russian cargo mission highlights the problems associated with relying on foreign countries for access to the ISS. …  As America takes steps towards the next chapter of space exploration, it is imperative that Congress remains vigilant in its support of the efforts of the Commercial Crew and COTS program. It is imperative that Congress ensure that they have the tools they need to be ready to carry crew to station as soon as is practically possible without sacrificing safety.” [Oct 31]

Rep. Bill Posey (R-Florida): At that same event, Congressman Posey stated, “The Commercial Crew Program represents our greatest near term hope for returning our astronauts to Low Earth Orbit and the International Space Station aboard American made vehicles. This capability will allow NASA to focus on exploring deeper into our solar system and beyond.” [Oct 31]

Video links:
Commercial Crew hearing in Congress last week: http://science.house.gov/hearing/full-committee-%E2%80%93-hearing
Florida event on Commercial Crew this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ekh_fKK0e8&feature=related

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 CSF’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.

Washington, D.C., Thursday, November 3, 2011 – Eric Anderson, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, is pleased to announce that the Federation has selected Dr. Alexander Saltman as the organization’s Executive Director.  Saltman is a physicist who has most recently served as the Legislative Director for Congressman Adam Schiff of California.  His appointment will be effective November 14.  Saltman succeeds John Gedmark, the organization’s founding Executive Director, who is departing to pursue a new opportunity.

Separately, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation is currently conducting an executive search for a new President to replace Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, who stepped down earlier this fall for medical reasons.

John Gedmark said, “I’ve had the privilege to know Alex for several years now, and he is a talented leader with a diverse technical, management, and public policy background.  Alex is the perfect candidate to continue and expand the achievements of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation as we move into the industry’s next phase of development and operations.”

Alex Saltman stated, “I feel privileged to join CSF as Executive Director, where I will have the unparalleled opportunity to help create a new industry–one that will open a new frontier to Americans and people around the world.  Commercial spaceflight has the potential to transform our world the way the automobile and the airplane did in years past.  John Gedmark has done an outstanding job helping to create and grow this organization, and I look forward to adding to his record of accomplishment.”

Eric Anderson, Chairman of the Federation, said, “We have a very exciting future ahead for all of us in the commercial space industry.  John Gedmark has assisted in building and leading this organization for the last five years, and has achieved a long list of successes. I am delighted to welcome Alex Saltman on board as our new Executive Director.  His talents and the passion he shares for opening space to everyone will serve the Federation well.  As commercial space vehicles begin filling the skies, the Federation will continue to become ever more important in the future of human spaceflight.”

Gedmark has served as Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation since the organization was incorporated in 2006 and has overseen the growth of the Federation from the original 10 companies to over 50 members today.  The Federation has become well-known to the press, the public, and to policymakers as a leading resource on the growing commercial spaceflight industry, and has presided over 12 CEO-level meetings of the Federation members since 2006.

During Gedmark’s tenure, the Federation played a lead role in the establishment of a number of major space policy changes and new programs, including the United States Government’s policy that commercial spaceflight providers shall be the primary means for transporting American astronauts to Earth orbit.  The Federation also played a lead role in the adoption of new FAA regulations for commercial human spaceflight, the establishment of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) Program, as well as funding for the FAA’s spaceport infrastructure program.  In addition, state legislation on spaceflight liability has become law in Virginia, Florida, Texas, and New Mexico.

Saltman has a wide range of experience in space policy, government, and scientific research. He most recently served as the Legislative Director for Congressman Schiff, who represents an area of Southern California that includes NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and who, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, has been a leading figure in space policy and NASA appropriations issues.  In that capacity Saltman oversaw a staff of five and led legislative efforts from conception to enactment, while advising the Congressman on science, space, energy, environment, and nonproliferation issues, as well as on relevant appropriations matters.

Saltman joined the Congressional office after receiving an American Physical Society Congressional Fellowship, having previously worked as a scientific researcher at the Stanford Linear Accelerator National Laboratory.  Saltman has also worked for Wired Magazine and contributed freelance articles to the publication.  A native of Texas, Saltman earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and his doctorate degree in physics from Stanford University.

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 CSF’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.

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Washington, D.C., Wednesday, October 26, 2011 – Officials with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) today announced that the Federation has partnered with Griffin Communications Group to help increase awareness of the benefits and importance of commercial spaceflight among the public, media, government and other stakeholders.  As part of the partnership, Griffin Communications Group has joined the CSF as an Associate Member.

Griffin Communications Group will provide ongoing expertise to put “best practice” communications tools and processes in place to better serve the mission of the Federation and its members.

CSF Executive Director John Gedmark said, “Griffin Communications Group is well-known throughout the commercial spaceflight industry for its deep understanding of this sector.  We look forward to our partnership with this organization as the industry continues to advance.”

“We consider ourselves stakeholders in this industry as much as service providers,” said Jeff Carr, Griffin Communications Group’s Vice President, Aerospace Communications. “We share a strong desire to help advance the state of the space industry. We believe that lending our talents and experience in strategic communications and marketing to industry leaders who are shaping the marketplace is the best way for us to contribute.”

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 CSF’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.

About Griffin Communications Group

Griffin Communications Group is a global, full-service firm specializing in strategic communications programs for its clients, with a primary focus on aerospace. For more than a decade, the firm has helped its clients develop, communicate, protect and expand their brands in a complex, global marketplace. The agency was founded by Gwen Griffin in 1997 and is headquartered in Houston with team members located in Los Angeles, Indianapolis and central Florida.  Her career in marketing and PR spans 25 years, serving in a variety of key corporate and agency roles. A 30-year veteran in the space industry with NASA and United Space Alliance, Jeff Carr heads up Griffin’s aerospace communications practice.  Griffin senior counsel Bruce Hicks, a former VP of Corporate Communications for Continental Airlines, is a recognized expert in crisis communications and issues management in the industry.

Sir Richard Branson’s space-tourism company won’t start passenger flights for at least two more years and operations will ramp up significantly more slowly than previously anticipated, according to its chief pilot.

In an interview, David Mackay said Virgin Galactic, the venture controlled by the British billionaire, likely won’t begin commercial flights until 2013.

First of all, the two paragraphs are at least potentially contradictory. Starting commercial flights in 2013 doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t start “for at least two more years”, given it’s October 2011: it’s entirely possible that they could start in early 2013, which would imply a delay of a little over one year, not at least two years. (They could, of course, start in late 2013, which would be closer to two years, but Mackay doesn’t provide a specific enough date to make the conclusion in the article’s lede.)

The second issue is that this delay should not be considered a surprise. Pronouncements in recent weeks and months indicated that commercial service would start, at best, in late 2012, with 2013 as a more likely date. For example, Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides said at the beginning of this month that the company would “try to get to some definition of space by the end of next year”, implying that they would still be performing test flights at the end of 2012.

What is true is that Virgin’s announced date for the beginning of commercial service has been a moving target, one that has been regularly moving to the right. When Virgin’s partnership with Scaled Composites was announced on the eve of Scaled’s X PRIZE-winning flights in September 2004, Virgin was expected to begin commercial flight by2007, a date that has gradually slipped to now 2013. That delay likely has several reasons, including the decision to develop a larger SpaceShipTwo as opposed to a version of the original SpaceShipOne, the July 2007 engine test accident in Mojave that killed three Scaled employees, and usual development delays. (Funding, presumably, has been less of an issue, given Virgin’s resources and outside investment from Aabar.) However, should those schedule slips continue, there will be new questions about Virgin’s ability to follow through on its commercial suborbital plans, and those delays create new opportunities for competitors, like XCOR Aerospace, to close the gap and even begin flights before Virgin.

Excalibur Almaz is now the third company with an unfunded SAA, after NASA signed similar agreements with United Launch Alliance in July and with ATK in September. Both of those were greeted with press releases by NASA and the companies, as well as press conferences. There has yet been no formal announcement about this new agreement by either NASA or Excalibur Almaz.

Sir Richard Branson, dangling from the top of Spaceport America's new terminal building, dedicates the building with a bottle of champagne. (credit: J. Foust)

It was the biggest line of the day—and Sir Richard Branson flubbed it.

Branson was dangling from the balcony Spaceport America’s new terminal building, halfway down the building’s glass wall. He and his son and daughter had joined a dance company, Project Bandaloop, for their performance on the building’s wall. After the dancers and Branson’s children rappelled down to the ground, Branson remained in place, and then had an oversized champagne bottle lowered to him so he could formally dedicate, and name, the building. “And, the name is, whoa!” he said as he uncorked the bottle, “Virgin Galactic Galactic.” And then, after a six-second pause, “Gateway to Space!”

While there was laughter and cheers from the several hundred people in attendance (“more than 800″, according to Virgin), some were left scratching their heads. “What did he say the name was?” one person in the media section asked. “Something about a gateway to space, I think,” said another. The building’s name, in fact, is now officially the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space.”

That, though, was a minor glitch in an event designed primarily to show off the spaceport and demonstrate Virgin’s continued commitment to flying SpaceShipTwo from the spaceport in the near future. The new name for the terminal building was one of the few new developments from the event. Virgin did announce some new research customers, including the Challenger Center (whose founder, June Scobee Rodgers, was in attendance). Virgin also announced its first hire for a new group of commercial pilots who will fly WK2 and SS2: Keith Colmer, an Air Force pilot who had previously applied to NASA’s astronaut corps but just missed the cut.

WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo take off from Spaceport America's runway on a brief captive carry flight over the spaceport. (credit: J. Foust)

At a “press conference” during the event (which, despite the name, did not allow any questions from the media), Virgin Galactic officials played up the progress they’ve made in the last year and sought to set themselves apart from the competition. “There is no other company that is as close to flying people to space as Galactic,” said Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides. “There is no one else test flying vehicles that can take you and me into space. And there is no one whose vehicles are based on a design that has already been safely to space to people,” a reference to SS2′s precursor, SpaceShipOne.

WK2 and SS2 soar over Spaceport America's new terminal building. (credit: J. Foust)

New Mexico officials at the event, including Governor Susana Martinez and Congressman Steve Pearce, focused on the economic benefits of the spaceport, including both the jobs created during the spaceport’s construction and those that will be created when the spaceport begins operations. Martinez in particular saw the spaceport as both a way to inspire the state’s youth to study science and engineering, as well as a source of high-tech jobs. “As a young child, what could be more exciting than space travel?” she asked. “We want these new jobs to be created right here so that young New Mexicans don’t have to leave the state to find fulfilling work.”

Martinez, who past comments suggested she was at least somewhat skeptical about the $200-million investment in the spaceport, sounded a little excited herself about the spaceport. “I look forward to strengthening the partnership between the state and Virgin Galactic,” she said. Turning to Branson, she added, “And Richard, today I may have to add it to my bucket list.”

Virgin didn’t offer any new clues yesterday on when it will begin flights from Spaceport America. “Our contractors are working hard now to get the system ready for the first powered flights next year,” Whitesides said, a timeline similar to what he said early this month. He did add that another full-scale ground test of SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motor is planned “very soon”.

Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space, the new terminal building at Spaceport America. (credit: J. Foust)

The fact that Virgin is still some time from beginning flights at Spaceport America is perhaps a relief to New Mexico, since the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space”, while formally dedicated yesterday, isn’t quite done. Walk up to that distinctive glass wall—which, in the bright sunlight, acts like a mirror—and peer inside, and you see that the interior rooms that will host Virgin Galactic’s operations, astronaut lounge, and other facilities, are still unfurnished, with the walls and floors completely bare. In one case, a door leading into the building was still lacking a handle. However, the building can already serve one its primary purposes: serving as a hangar for WK2 and SS2, which is where they vehicles were housed Sunday when spaceport executive director Christine Anderson saw them for the first time. “It was so awesome to see that,” she said. “Then I thought, ‘Wow, it fits in the hangar. Super!’”

Virgin appeared very pleased with the building and its unique design, as well as its environmentally-friendly characteristics that won it a LEED Gold rating. “Simply put,” Branson said, “it is a 21st century building for a 21st century business.”

SpaceShipTwo is nestled between the twin fuselages of WhiteKnightTwo during a flyby at Spaceport America in New Mexico on October 17.

On September 29th, SpaceShipTwo made its 16th glide flight, and first in three months, in the skies above Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The SpaceShipTwo test flight log at Scaled Composites indicates that the flight did not go exactly as planned:

Test card called for releasing the Spaceship from WhiteKnightTwo and immediately entering a rapid descent. Upon release, the Spaceship experienced a downward pitch rate that caused a stall of the tails. The crew followed procedure, selecting the feather mode to revert to a benign condition. The crew then defeathered and had a nominal return to base. Great flying by the team and good demo of feather system.

Earlier this week, SPACE.com’s Leonard David provided a little more information about that glide test. That discussion makes the flight sound a little more harrowing than the writeup in the official log, with one observer claiming that the vehicle “dropped like a rock and went straight down”.

Scott Ostrem, chief engineer at The Spaceship Company, the Scaled-Virgin Galactic joint venture that will be manufacturing SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo, offered an explanation at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Wednesday. “You come off the WhiteKnight and quickly going into a pitch-down attitude by design,” he said. “We pitched down a little too steeply on that flight and experienced a tail stall.”

There are several options to recover from such a stall, he said, one of them being using the vehicle’s unique feathering mechanism, designed to provide stability during reentry. “Our pilot chose to feather it. It’s an incredible testament to the feather design: instantly the vehicle stabilized at about 20, 30,000 feet,” Ostrem said. “We just then de-feathered and glided back down safely. It was a unique opportunity for us to prove out the feather design ata point where we weren’t necessarily intending to do it.”

That, however, has not stopped a series of rumors, whispered during breaks at the ISPCS and on the Internet, that the incident was more serious than what the companies have reported. Those include rumors that they were testing a maneuver in order to perform a drop test at the Spaceport America terminal dedication event held Monday. No such drop test took place, of course, but whatever happened did not prevent Virgin and Scaled from ferrying SpaceShipTwo from Mojave to the spaceport for the event.

To try to answer this, I dug through several years of my own notes as well as media reports and press releases. The result is the chart below, showing the number of customers Virgin Galactic has reported since the beginning of 2008:

It’s worth noting that in many cases the numbers given by the company are approximate: “nearly 300″, “over 350″, etc. For the purposes of the chart I’ve rounded up or down accordingly; in the case of the previous examples, they would be 300 and 350, respectively, in the chart. (Ideally I’d put in some error bars, but Google doesn’t support them in this chart.)

What this shows is that after a relatively flat 2009, Virgin has seen a steady increase in customers. (2009, it should be noted, is not as flat as the chart suggests, because of the rounding described above: the company reported “nearly 300″ in early 2009 and “over 300″ late in the year.) Over the last 17 months, from mid-May 2010 to Thursday, the company had seen an increase of 120 customers, a rate of a new customer every 4.3 days. During the nearly 22 months prior to that, from late July 2008 to mid-May 2010, the company had reported an increase of only 65 new customers, or one every 10.1 days. The sluggish growth then is not surprising given the economic crisis that started in 2008. Meanwhile, as the economy slowly improves Virgin is inching closer to flight, which may increase the interest among prospective customers.

This data set is certainly incomplete, based on a limited amount of research. If you’re aware of new or more accurate data, please let me know and I’ll update this chart accordingly.

Those upcoming flights through the rest of this year will still be unpowered, though, he said. Plans call for integrating SpaceShipTwo’s hybrid rocket motor into the vehicle early next year and start rocket-powered flight tests. “Our current aspiration is to try to get to some definition of space by the end of next year,” he said. He was vague on what “some definition” is; while the Kármán line, a widely-used definition of space is 100 kilometers, US government agencies award astronaut wings for flights to 50 miles (80 kilometers).

After that, he said, entering commercial operations will depend on two “big tasks”: transferring flight operations form Mojave to Spaceport America in New Mexico (a formal dedication of the spaceport’s main terminal building is planned for October 17), and getting a launch license from the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. “We don’t release a more precise public schedule” for beginning commercial operations, he added, to avoid putting schedule pressure on their engineers, he said. That’s consistent with past comments by Virgin officials that they’ll be ready to fly when it’s safe to do so, and not before.

Whitesides’ comments about SpaceShipTwo testing was part of a broader keynote at the conference, which is focusing on what technological and other breakthroughs are needed to develop an interstellar mission in the next century. His focus, by comparison, was on the near term. “We’re trying to do something, when it comes to suborbital space, that is doable today. That’s what’s exciting about Galactic and some of the other companies out there,” he said. “We’re trying to tackle a problem that is doable today.”

Still, he and others are supporting of the long-term vision at the conference. His talk included a video from Sir Richard Branson. “I think what you’re doing here is both important and absolutely fascinating,” Branson said.

(a) This solicitation is for the Commercial Crew Program’s acquisition to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost effective access to and from low earth orbit (LEO) including the International Space Station (ISS). The acquisition will be conducted as a two-phased procurement using a competitive down-selection technique between phases. In this technique, two or more contractors will be selected for Phase 1. It is expected that the single contractor for Phase 2 will be chosen from among these contractors after a competitive down-selection.

“Phase 1″ refers to the Integrated Design Phase, the next CCDev round, while Phase 2 refers to the follow-on “Development, Test, Evaluation and Certification” phase, which covers the actual construction and testing of a commercial crewed spacecraft. The passage above appears to indicate that NASA will select only one company for Phase 2, contrary to past claims that the agency planned to support the development of multiple providers. Does this represent a change in plans?

Probably not. One thing to keep in mind is a passage later in that same section: “Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the competition in Phase 2 may result in the award of multiple contracts if budget allows.” That indicates that the agency remains open to providing multiple awards in the following CCDev phase. In addition, when talking to Florida Today reporter James Dean yesterday for an article he wrote about CCDev, he shared with me a clarification he received from NASA on that issue. It turns out that the clause in question is a standard one in FAR-based contracts, and that the Commercial Crew Program was “investigating getting a waiver or deviation from this standard clause language for the final RFP.”

So, while NASA seems committed to continuing to support multiple providers throughout the CCDev program, funding permitting, this case is a reminder that the shift from Space Act Agreements to FAR-based contracts could create some issues that both NASA and industry need to be aware of.

Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to support a letter on NASA Space Technology funding, signed by 45 companies, nonprofits, and research universities, which was delivered to Congress last week.

The letter states, “The Space Technology program is a critical investment in NASA’s future, our nation’s future in space, and America’s technology leadership position in the world.” The letter notes, “We write in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Technology program for fiscal year (FY) 2012. We urge you to support the program at a level of at least $535 million plus costs to cover the NASA labor transition. … As recognized by Congress in the America COMPETES Act, our nation’s economic competitiveness and high standard of living are based on decades of investment in innovation, research, and technology. Through space technology, NASA will stimulate the economy and build America’s global economic competitiveness through the creation of new products and services, new businesses and industries, and high?quality, sustainable jobs across NASA Centers, universities, and both small and large businesses.”

The full text of the letter can be found at:
http://commercialspaceflight.org/Other%20Content/NASA%20Space%20Technology%20Letter%20of%20Support,%20Senate.pdf

Copies of the letter were sent to both the House and Senate.

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.

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]]> http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/space-flight/commercial-spaceflight-federation-supports-letter-on-nasa-space-technology-funding.php/feed 0 http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/space-flight/atk-to-get-unfunded-ccdev-agreement.php http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/space-flight/atk-to-get-unfunded-ccdev-agreement.php#comments Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:45:31 +0000 admin http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/atk-to-get-unfunded-ccdev-agreement/ Continue reading →]]> Last Friday NASA announced that the space agency and ATK would announce an agreement this Tuesday “that could accelerate the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities”. (The announcement was originally going to be only available to media calling into a telecon line, but NASA said Monday the announcement will be on NASA TV at 3 pm EDT.) The announcement has generated various degrees of glee or despair, depending on one’s opinions about ATK’s work on solid rocket motors it has proposed for its Liberty rocket and is seeking to have incorporated into NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket.

What seems likely to be announced tomorrow, though, is some kind of unfunded Space Act Agreement that is part of NASA’s second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. NASA already has one such unfunded CCDev-2 agreement, with United Launch Alliance (ULA); when that agreement was announced in July, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that it “may speed the development of a commercial crew transportation system for the International Space Station”, language similar to the announcement last week. Given that the funded CCDev-2 awards focused on spacecraft development, unfunded agreements allow companies like ULA and ATK to keep their launch vehicle efforts on track, although they get no funding from NASA.

The announcement comes just after ATK performed the third successful test-firing of its five-segment solid rocket motor, originally intended for the Ares 1 and Ares 5 but now proposed for Liberty and SLS. An unfunded CCDev-2 award would help ATK keep the Liberty vehicle on track. There’s one problem, though: right now there’s no obvious commercial crew customer for Liberty. Of the four funded CCDev-2 vehicle developers, three (Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada, and, most recently, Boeing) have selected ULA’s Atlas 5, while SpaceX, not surprisingly, is sticking with its own Falcon 9 rocket. Unless another company enters the commercial crew competition down the road, or one of ULA’s customers have second thoughts, Liberty may remain on the outside looking in.

On Friday, NASA held a follow-up forum on its plans for the “Integrated Design Phase” of CCDev, organized on only a few days notice and apparently to a modest in-person audience at the Kennedy Space Center (with a larger audience presumably watching via webcast). At the forum NASA officials confirmed that, even after getting considerable feedback from industry on the use of SAAs versus FAR-based contracts, it was still pressing ahead with its original plans to use a SAA/FAR hybrid for the upcoming CCDev competition.

“Why did we end up going to a contract when many of our partners in industry would prefer a Space Act Agreement?” asked Brent Jett, deputy manager of the Commercial Crew Program at NASA. He explained than one purpose of the CCDev program was to certify commercially-developed vehicles to fly NASA astronauts to the ISS. He said that the focus of the upcoming Integrated Design Phase was to have a mature “end-to-end” crew transportation system at the critical design review (CDR) level, as well as a plan on how to certify that system to meet NASA’s requirements in later development phases. “When you look at that objective, it’s clear to me that the purpose of the Integrated Design Phase is directly for the benefit of the US government and NASA,” he said. “When you talk to procurement and legal experts, they will tell you that since that is the purpose of this phase, that we cannot use a Space Act Agreement.”

That analysis hinges on exactly when NASA or other government agencies can use so-called “Other Transaction Authority” (OTA), which in NASA’s case is a Space Act Agreement. OTA gives government agencies the flexibility to use alternative, streamlined agreements with the private sector, but to avoid their being used to get around conventional procurement regulations, there are limitations on when such agreements can be entered into. At a Women In Aerospace presentation this summer not directly related to CCDev, an official from NASA’s Office of General Counsel described when SAAs can be used. The presentation noted that a contract is required when the purpose of the activity is to acquire goods or services for the direct benefit or use by the government. NASA’s argument—one that is not likely shared by many in industry—is that the Integrated Design phase will be primarily for the benefit of NASA, hence some form of contract, rather than an SAA, much be used. (As for previous CCDev phases, NASA argues it has been primarily helping industry accelerate their technologies for commercial crew systems that serve multiple customers, and thus is not primarily for the benefit of the government.)

Jett, as well as Phil McAlister of NASA Headquarters, emphasized that the contract that they’re proposing would retain many of the desirable elements of an SAA. The contract, while FAR-based, will include milestone-based payments, and allow companies to propose their own detailed statements of work for this phase of the effort. Companies will be exempt from Cost Accounting Standards (and the bureaucratic overhead associated with them) in this contract phase. There will also be a “balanced approach” to intellectual property, without going into greater detail, Jett said.

NASA is planning to release a draft RFP for the next CCDev phase next week, with a requirements workshop and industry day planned for October 4 and 5, respectively, at the Kennedy Space Center. The final RFP is due out by the end of the year.

NASA is not the only one who has been scrutinizing the use of SAAs for the CCDev program. In the report accompanying its fiscal year 2012 commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee was critical of NASA’s use of such agreements for CCDev. While giving NASA $500 million for CCDev in 2012, one of the strings it attached was language limiting the use of SAAs in future CCDev rounds. “The Committee believes that the current practice by NASA has gone beyond what is cited under NASA’s own policy directive” for using SAAs, the report states. “Such misuse of these authorities undermines the oversight of NASA in the procurement process and threatens crew safety. For future rounds of commercial crew competitions and acquisitions, NASA shall limit the use of funded Space Act Agreements as stated in the directive in order to preserve critical NASA oversight of Federal funds provided for spacecraft and launch vehicle development.”

The question now facing companies currently involved or interested in CCDev is whether this shift from a pure SAA to a FAR-based contract with some elements of an SAA—but also likely with some greater overhead—is worth the promise of federal funding to develop crew transportation systems.

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Position Statement:

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Supports Use of Space Act Agreements (SAAs) for Next Phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program

For the next phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program, following CCDev Rounds 1 and 2, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation strongly supports the use of Space Act Agreements (SAAs) under NASA’s Other Transaction Agreements (OTA) authority, rather than a Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)-based approach. SAA’s are the best means for NASA to support commercial development of systems to transport crew and cargo to the Space Station.

Over the last 30 years, the Air Force and NASA have made numerous attempts to replace some of the capabilities of the Space Shuttle, such as satellite launch, cargo transport, and human transport. Examples include Ares I, COTS Cargo, Orbital Space Plane (OSP), VentureStar/X-33, Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), National Launch System (NLS), and X-30/National Aerospace Plane (NASP). The contrast is stark: of these programs, only the programs that used OTAs resulted in new launch vehicles successfully flying to orbit.

A primary example is the successful development of the two Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) under Air Force OTAs with Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Both companies received $500 million from the government and contributed additional funds of their own. Both programs successfully met requirements levied by the federal government, and have since been used to launch our Nation’s most critical national security space assets for nearly a decade. Another example is NASA’s COTS Cargo development program, also conducted under an SAA/OTA, was the first NASA program since 1981 to result in a new launch vehicle and spacecraft successfully reaching orbit.

Space Act Agreements embody a public-private partnership between both NASA and the company to develop a capability that is to be used for both government and private purposes. SAAs let companies focus on the most essential aspects of a program, meeting the requirements for performance and safety at a reduced cost. By contrast, traditional FAR-based acquisition approaches “by and for the government” establish a manager-contractor relationship in which the government directs the contractor, effectively controlling the development decisions. Such a relationship is not conducive to the innovative approach necessary to develop new capabilities that will be owned and operated by commercial companies to serve both government and commercial customers.

In addition, SAAs are more appropriate than traditional FAR-based contracting for the next phase of the Commercial Crew Development Program because:

* SAAs will increase competition and expand NASA’s choices – Traditional FAR-based contracts contain numerous regulations and reporting requirements that would fundamentally change the way some commercial companies have to do business, such that they would likely not participate in the Commercial Crew program. Examples include tracking requirements for all employees’ activities whether engaged in the particular development activity or not and compliance monitoring of numerous legal contracting clauses. SAAs will allow many more companies and subcontractors to participate, bringing low-cost, innovative solutions to federal requirements. This includes commercial entities that previously avoided doing business with the government because of the burdensome obligations imposed by the FARs. The use of FAR-based contracts for the next phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew development program – even fixed-price – will significantly limit NASA’s choices.

* SAAs allow incorporation of safety and performance requirements – SAAs can be written to ensure the proper insight versus oversight level and processes as mutually agreed by NASA and the companies. SAAs allow the tailoring of the public-private partnership to meet both parties’ needs, including levying NASA safety and performance requirements, as was done under the EELV program. In contrast to the FAR, which can be both overly broad and burdensome, the flexibility of a SAA allows NASA and its commercial partners to formulate a relationship that permits optimal results.

* SAAs can include other FAR requirements as needed – SAAs can contain virtually anything both parties agree to include, and have the flexibility to be easily tailored as needed. Traditional FAR-based contracts have numerous legal requirements that cannot be easily modified or waived. SAAs represent the best of both worlds, providing NASA with the ability to incorporate relevant and necessary FAR provisions without imposing the entirety of the FAR that will result in time and money being wasted on rigid, irrelevant, and counterproductive provisions.

* SAAs allow for private investment – SAAs allow funding from both public and private sources to be used in developing capabilities that will be used for both commercial and government purposes. Traditional FAR-based contracting rules do not easily accommodate the use of both public and private funds. Private investment enables a program to achieve the same result at a lower cost to the government.

* SAAs have been proven to lower costs – A NASA cost study showed the COTS Cargo development program has achieved successes at a fraction of the cost of a traditional government launch-vehicle program. If instead of using SAAs NASA had used a hybrid of traditional and commercial approaches, the cost would have been significantly increased, and if NASA had used a more traditional FAR-based approach the cost would have increased further still. The cost-growth that traditionally accompanies the FAR approach often reaches the point where costs become prohibitive and the development program is later canceled.

In summary, the use of SAAs/OTAs is vital for NASA to promote innovation and quickly, affordably, and safely develop crew transportation capabilities. SAAs have been upheld by the Government Accountability Office as an appropriate mechanism for supporting the development of commercial space transportation. For these reasons, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation strongly supports the use of Space Act Agreements (SAAs) for the next phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program following CCDev Rounds 1 and 2.

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Commercial spacecraft will speed NASA’s return to space once the Space Shuttle is retired

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Friday, July 8, 2011 – As the Space Shuttle is readied for its final, historic flight today, the next NASA astronauts to launch from America will do so on a commercial spacecraft, in a historic shift.

“With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, it is time to look to our commercial spaceflight industry to provide safe and affordable crew delivery,” said Admiral Craig Steidle, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.  “The growth of commercial spaceflight will enable NASA to have a bright future ahead.”

“This week, we welcome the arrival of the Commercial Space Age,” added John Gedmark, Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

“In fact, thanks to commercial spaceflight, the next decade will see more flights to space than in any previous decade of the Space Age.  This marks a historic milestone,” noted Gedmark.

“Commercial space vehicles will launch NASA astronauts, private citizens, and scientists and researchers by the dozens, and will even dock with private space stations. These are not dreams; this is near-term reality,” added Gedmark.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program will enable NASA astronauts to once again launch from U.S. soil on American-made vehicles such as the SpaceX Dragon, the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser, the Boeing CST-100, and the Blue Origin Space Vehicle.  The Commercial Crew Program will create thousands of jobs in the process, including a significant number of jobs in Florida.

Admiral Steidle added, “The commercial space industry is the fastest means to get American astronauts back into space aboard US spacecraft.”

Eric Anderson, chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and chair of Space Adventures, stated, “Commercial spaceflight is a good-news, made-in-America story that Americans can be proud of – it’s a story about job creation, inspiration, and technological innovation.”

Anderson added, “Commercial spaceflight will demonstrate to the entire world, in high profile fashion, the power of U.S. entrepreneurship and creativity. We are embarking on a truly amazing period for spaceflight – a real sea change.”

Anderson concluded, “As people watch the Space Shuttle’s white contrail stretch across the sky for the final time, we hope they will think, not just of the Shuttle’s proud legacy, but of the dawn of a new era – commercial space flight.  Changes like this only occur in a generation – and it will be a change that will profoundly affect our nation.”

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.

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“I am truly excited about the addition of ULA to NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program team. Having ULA on board may speed the development of a commercial crew transportation system for the International Space Station, allowing NASA to concentrate its resources on exploring beyond low-Earth orbit,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, in a press release issued by NASA.

John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, stated, “Atlas V has flown 26 for 26 successful missions, and the Atlas family has had 97 consecutive successes. The Commercial Crew Program is strengthened by today’s announcement.”

“Today’s announcement further highlights how the Commercial Crew Program is enabling NASA to regain American access to space as soon as possible,” added Gedmark.

Commercial reusable suborbital spacecraft – such as Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx, Masten Space Systems’ Xaero, Blue Origin’s New Shepard, and Armadillo Aerospace’s modular vehicles – provide the nation with a new low-cost capability to carry payloads and people to the edge of space. NASA is taking advantage of these capabilities with its CRuSR program. Following the Space Shuttle’s retirement, commercial suborbital vehicles are expected to be the next American flights of people into space from US soil.

Admiral Craig Steidle, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, stated, “Today’s announcement illustrates the future of NASA-industry partnerships in order to offer R&D, science, and education flight opportunities.”

According to NASA, “each successful vendor will receive an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. These two-year contracts, worth a combined total of $10 million, will allow NASA to draw from a pool of commercial space companies to deliver payload integration and flight services. The flights will carry a variety of payloads to help meet the agency’s research and technology needs.” A total of seven firms were selected.

Admiral Steidle added, “The Commercial Spaceflight Federation applauds the leadership of Dr. Bobby Braun, NASA’s Chief Technologist. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is a strong advocate for the CRuSR program and for Space Technology.”

NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun stated in the NASA press release, “NASA is moving toward the goal of making frequent, low-cost access to near-space available to a wide range of engineers, scientists and technologists. The government’s ability to open the suborbital research frontier to a broad community of innovators will enable maturation of the new technologies and capabilities needed for NASA’s future missions in space.”

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Executive Director John Gedmark noted, “This is a big day for commercial space. Just as 1920s air mail purchases helped jumpstart the airline industry, we expect that NASA’s purchases of flights on commercial suborbital vehicles will help accelerate this new industry. Hundreds of scientists, engineers, and educators have attended CSF workshops on the topic of using commercial suborbital vehicles, and we are thrilled to see that the R&D community will now be able to get rides to space.”

NASA’s full press release can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/aug/HQ_11-258_Flight_Opportunities.html .

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.

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The commercial spaceflight industry was recently featured in a NBC Nightly News piece examining the future of spaceflight following retirement of the Space Shuttle.

“With just one more shuttle mission to go before the program ends this summer, a new space race is already well underway,” says NBC anchor Lester Holt.

The NBC Nightly News video link (”Space Race II”) is available at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43211040

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.

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Washington, D.C. – The National Aerospace Training and Research Center (NASTAR) in Southampton, PA, a member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, welcomed last week its latest set of future scientist-astronauts and educator-astronauts for training. Participants are training to conduct scientific research while flying onboard commercial suborbital spacecraft such as those operated by Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, XCOR Aerospace, and Armadillo Aerospace.

Several videos of the training session are available below:
(Multiple videos with detailed article:) http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1531
(Cockpit view during centrifuge run:) http://onorbit.com/node/3322
(SpaceShipTwo acceleration profile in centrifuge:) http://www.onorbit.com/node/3323

Demonstrating the strong interest from the scientific community in using commercial suborbital vehicles for science, research, and education, a total of 42 researchers from 18 different universities and organizations have now each spent three days training at NASTAR Center in four separate classes since the Suborbital Scientist Training Program debuted in January 2010. The upcoming suborbital scientist class on July 11-13 is already fully booked, and a university booked a custom class for July 18-20. The next available slots for potential scientist-astronauts is September 12-14.

Keith Cowing, a Board of Directors member of the Challenger Center for Space Education and well-known space journalist, remarked, “Based on my NASTAR experience (centrifuge & altitude chamber), ANYONE in good health with good training can fly to space. These new suborbital vehicles will inaugurate a new era for education and science, and I’m excited to cover it just as its true potential starts to unfold.”

Dr. Alan Stern, associate vice president at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and chairman of the CSF’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group, stated, “This shows sustained interest in the researcher/educator community” in suborbital spaceflight. In early 2010, SwRI helped kick off the Suborbital Scientist Training Program in conjunction with NASTAR. (See: http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2009/nastar.htm)

Training sessions in the multi-day “Suborbital Scientist Training Course” included: Altitude Chamber Flight in a hypobaric chamber; G-Tolerance Flights in a high-g centrifuge; and a distraction factor exercise. Topics covered in ground school included: Intro to Suborbital Flight & Vehicles; Altitude Physiology; Motion & Acceleration Physiology; Space Launch & Reentry Training; Working Under Pressure; and Time Management. (For more info on the training please visit the following link: http://www.nastarcenter.com/space/suborbital_scientist)

Brienna Henwood, Director for Space and Research at NASTAR Center, remarked, “I can’t think of a better way to inspire students to pursue science careers, than by providing hands-on space training and realistic spaceflight opportunities that will enable them to one day join the ranks of an entirely new class of explorer – the suborbital scientist-astronaut. We fully expect that hundreds of scientists will fly into space during the next 10 years as these vehicles start flying, and NASTAR is proud to offer the needed space training services to get them there.”

Other participants included: Cathy Olkin and Constantine Tsang from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), an nonprofit institution which recently announced it will be buying tickets for scientists’ flights to space as part of a historic deal announced by SwRI to buy seats on the XCOR Aerospace and Virgin Galactic vehicles; Rex Ridenoure, CEO of Ecliptic Enterprises, also a member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation; Tony Dokupil from NEWSWEEK, and several other trainees.

About the Environmental Tectonics Corporation (ETC) – NASTAR Center
ETC’s The National AeroSpace Training and Research Center (NASTAR) Center houses state-of-the-art equipment and professional staff to support the training and research needs of the aerospace community, including military aviation (fixed and rotary wing), civil aviation (fixed and rotary wing), space travel (government and private) and research support and data collection. NASTAR Center’s equipment and programs are highly modular and flexible and can accommodate a wide range of aerospace training and research requirements. For more information please visit www.nastarcenter.com or contact Brienna Henwood at bhenwood@nastarcenter.com or 215-355-9100 x1504.

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.

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