Beth Dickey/Melissa Mathews
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2087/1272
Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
RELEASE: 07-138
NASA SIGNS COMMERCIAL SPACE TRANSPORTATION AGREEMENTS
WASHINGTON - Through three new Space Act agreements, NASA is expanding
cooperation with companies interested in commercializing access to
space. The companies are developing capabilities to transport goods
and people to low Earth orbit.
NASA signed nonreimbursable Space Act agreements, which do not provide
any government funding to the companies, with SpaceDev of Poway,
Calif., SPACEHAB of Houston, and Constellation Services International
(CSI) of Laguna Woods, Calif. The pacts establish milestones and
objective criteria by which the companies can gauge their progress in
developing orbital cargo transportation capabilities.
Under the agreements, NASA will share information that will help the
companies understand projected requirements for International Space
Station crew and cargo transportation launch vehicles, as well as
spacecraft and NASA human rating criteria.
SpaceDev, SPACEHAB and CSI will work to develop and demonstrate the
vehicles, systems and operations needed to transport cargo to and
from a low Earth orbit destination. SpaceDev also will include crew
transport in its development program. NASA will acknowledge the
companies' milestone accomplishments.
"This is a significant development," said Scott Horowitz, NASA
associate administrator for Exploration Systems. "First there were
two, and now there are a total of five private companies cooperating
with NASA by dedicating entirely private funding to help establish a
robust commercial space transportation industry."
"We're pleased to welcome these entrepreneurs to the growing list of
companies willing to invest their own resources as NASA encourages
development of a whole new sector of the commercial space industry,"
said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the Commercial Crew and Cargo
Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The program's overarching goals are to stimulate commercial
enterprises in space, facilitate U.S. private industry development of
reliable, cost-effective access to low Earth orbit and create a
market environment in which commercial space transportation services
are available to government and private customers. By stimulating the
growth of commercial space enterprise, NASA plans to free itself to
focus on long-range exploration to the moon and Mars.
Last year, NASA signed funded agreements with Space Exploration
Technologies of El Segundo, Calif., and Rocketplane Kistler of
Oklahoma City under the program's competition for Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services demonstrations. In January 2007, NASA signed
unfunded agreements with Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space) of
Reston, Va., and PlanetSpace, Inc., of Chicago, which are similar to
the three signed today.
After industry has demonstrated safe and reliable capabilities, NASA
plans to enter the next phase of the Commercial Crew and Cargo
Program and may purchase transportation services from commercial
providers to supply the International Space Station.
For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
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