CCiCap - Commercial Crew Integrated Capability

[Александр Ч.]

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1410/01cctcapprotest/

Boeing, SpaceX told to stop work under crew contracts
[SIZE=-2]BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: October 1, 2014[/SIZE]


TORONTO -- NASA has directed Boeing and SpaceX to halt activities under contracts awarded last month to build commercial space taxis to ferry astronauts to the the International Space Station while the U.S. Government Accountability Office reviews a protest of NASA's contract decision filed by Sierra Nevada Corp.

[SIZE=-2]Boeing, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX competed for contracts to build, test and fly commercial human-rated spacecraft to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit.. Credit: NASA[/SIZE]
 
Boeing and SpaceX beat out Sierra Nevada for the contracts, which are worth up to $6.8 billion and cover development, testing and operational flights through 2019 if NASA exercises all options in both deals.
NASA announced the winners of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability, or CCtCap, contracts Sept. 16, and Sierra Nevada filed a protest to the GAO on Sept. 26, seeking "a further detailed review and evaluation of the submitted proposals and capabilities," the company said in a statement.
The legal challenge stops any work to be executed under the Boeing and SpaceX contracts, according to Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokesperson.
"Pursuant to the GAO protest, NASA has instructed Boeing and SpaceX to stop performance of the CCtCap contract," Schierholz said.
Officials did not say if the work stoppage prevents activities using internal funds.
The GAO has until Jan. 5 to recommend a response to Sierra Nevada's challenge, but the congressional watchdog agency could release a ruling within weeks.
According to GAO data, about 42 percent of bid protests submitted to the agency from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2012 were sustained by the GAO or resolved with voluntary action.
If the GAO rules in favor of Sierra Nevada, NASA could change its decision or re-compete the commercial crew contract.
Sierra Nevada said there were "serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process" that prompted the contract protest.
"SNC believes the result of further evaluation of the proposals submitted will be that America ends up with a more capable vehicle, at a much lower cost, with a robust and sustainable future," Sierra Nevada said in a press release.
Sierra Nevada's bid to complete development of its Dream Chaser lifting body -- designed to take off on top of a rocket and return to a runway landing -- asked for $900 million less than Boeing, the company said.
The Dream Chaser proposal was deemed "near equivalent" to Boeing and SpaceX's bids in scoring on technical merit and past performance, according to Sierra Nevada.
NASA has not released information on the reasons for choosing Boeing and SpaceX over Sierra Nevada, which touts the Dream Chaser's ability to return to a softer landing than its competitors, along with other mission options such as satellite servicing, cargo delivery, and orbital debris removal.
Before the protest, Boeing was poised to carry on work on its CST-100 crew capsule under a $4.2 billion contract, and SpaceX won a $2.6 billion deal to develop a human-rated version of its Dragon spacecraft.
NASA officials have said both companies are on track to begin operational crew launches by the end of 2017, ending U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to carry astronauts between Earth and the space station.
But NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, speaking to reporters at the 65th International Astronautical Congress here, declined to answer any questions on the commercial crew program, citing legal sensitivities after Sierra Nevada's challenge to the GAO.
Bill Gerstenmaier, head of the space agency's human spaceflight programs, also deferred questions on the protest's impact to Boeing and SpaceX's schedules.
Boeing has completed work on a preceding agreement with NASA that led into the CCtCap phase of the commercial crew program.
SpaceX is putting its Dragon crew capsule through structural qualification testing, then engineers will gear up for a Dragon abort test before finishing milestones under the company's previous cost-sharing agreement with NASA.
Those milestones are not affected by Sierra Nevada's protest, but any work to kick off tasks identified in the new contract could be delayed, officials said.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

[Александр Ч.]

NASA clears commercial crew contractors to resume work
[SIZE=-2]BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: October 9, 2014[/SIZE]

//[JUSTIFY][/JUSTIFY]////23




Boeing Co. and SpaceX, sel ected by NASA last month to carry astronauts to the International Space Station, can resume development of their human-rated spacecraft after officials ordered a work stoppage prompted by a protest by Sierra Nevada Corp., the company left out of the contracts, NASA said Thursday.

[SIZE=-2]Artist's concept of the CST-100 crew capsule approaching the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Boeing[/SIZE]
 
NASA directed Boeing and SpaceX to halt work under the new Commercial Crew Transportation Capability, or CCtCap, contracts after Sierra Nevada sought a review of the space agency's contract decision by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Government agencies often hold up work under new contracts when protests are filed to the GAO.
In a posting on its website Thursday, NASA said it has decided to proceed with the Boeing and SpaceX contracts despite Sierra Nevada's challenge.
"The agency recognizes that failure to provide the CCtCap transportation service as soon as possible poses risks to the International Space Station (ISS) crew, jeopardizes continued operation of the ISS, would delay meeting critical crew size requirements, and may result in the U.S. failing to perform the commitments it made in its international agreements," NASA said in the Internet post.
The GAO has not weighed in on Sierra Nevada's protest. The congressional watchdog agency has until Jan. 5 to issue a recommendation.
If the GAO rules in favor of Sierra Nevada, NASA could change its decision or re-compete the commercial crew contract. NASA is not explicitly required to follow GAO recommendations, but the watchdog reports to Congress when agencies do not comply with GAO rulings.
Sierra Nevada said there were "serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process" that prompted the contract protest. The company said its proposal was less costly to NASA than Boeing's and was deemed "near equivalent" to Boeing and SpaceX's bids in technical merit and past performance metrics.
But NASA's announcement Thursday means Boeing and SpaceX are cleared to continue work under the CCtCap contracts, aiming to produce a certified spacecraft and launch vehicle for astronaut crews by the end of 2017.
"These considerations compelled NASA to use its statutory authority to avoid significant adverse consequences where contract performance remained suspended," NASA said. "NASA has determined that it best serves the United States to continue performance of the CCtCap contracts that will enable safe and reliable travel to and from the ISS from the United States on American spacecraft and end the nation's sole reliance on Russia for such transportation."
The space agency announced Sept. 16 it chose Boeing and SpaceX to build, test and fly commercial crew spacecraft to end U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spaceships for transportation of astronauts to the space station by the end of 2017.
Sierra Nevada also bid for a contract, but NASA passed over the company's Dream Chaser lifting body concept in favor of Boeing and SpaceX capsules designed to land under parachutes with the help of air bags and braking rockets.
Sierra Nevada said Sept. 26 it filed a protest with the GAO, seeking "a further detailed review and evaluation of the submitted proposals and capabilities," the company said in a statement.
The Dream Chaser proposal, which would take off on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and land on a runway, would cost some $900 million less than Boeing's CST-100 contract, Sierra Nevada said.
Boeing is set to receive up to $4.2 billion in its CCtCap contract. SpaceX's deal is worth a maximum of $2.6 billion.
Both contracts cover development, test flights and up to six operational missions to ferry NASA and partner astronauts between Earth and the International Space Station. NASA guaranteed each company at least two fully-fledged for-profit flights.
Boeing's CST-100 crew capsule -- like Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser -- is designed to take off aboard Atlas 5 rockets.
SpaceX is working on a highly-modified second-generation Dragon capsule fitted with myriad upgrades and changes -- including new rocket thrusters, computers, a different outer mold line, and redesigned solar arrays -- fr om the company's Dragon cargo delivery vehicle already flying to the space station.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1410/09cctcap/#.VDdZZ6DHnqA

[SFN]

Ничего не понял из заграничной речи. Выбрали CST-100?

[Apollo13]

SFN пишет:
Ничего не понял из заграничной речи. Выбрали CST-100?

Сказали Боингу и SpaceX продолжать работать, несмотря не протест SNC, чтобы не сорвать сроки.

[Александр Ч.]

В заметке про то, что в NASA решили положить болт на требования приостановки работ Boeing&SpaceX пока идут разборки с SN . 
Остальное там для антуража, типа "ранее в сериале..." 

[Александр Ч.]

Boeing, SpaceX on track for commercial crew flights to station in 2017

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION

File photo of the International Space Station as seen by a space shuttle crew in 2010. Credit: NASA


NASA expects to spend some $5 billion underwriting development of commercial spacecraft built by Boeing and SpaceX to carry astronauts to and fr om the International Space Station, officials said Monday, ending sole reliance on the Russians for crew ferry flights and eventually lowering the average cost per seat to around $58 million.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, said her company's upgraded Dragon V2 ferry craft should be ready for an initial unpiloted flight to the space station in late 2016 with the first crewed flight, likely carrying a SpaceX test pilot and a NASA astronaut, in early 2017.
John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space Exploration, said his company's CST-100 spacecraft is expected to be ready for an uncrewed test flight in April 2017, followed by a crewed flight, with a Boeing pilot and a NASA astronaut, in the July 2017 timeframe.
Both companies must complete the crewed and uncrewed test flights before NASA certification, which will pave the way for the start of operational crew rotation and cargo delivery flights to the International Space Station later in 2017. Until then, NASA will continue to rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to carry U.S. and partner crew members to and from the lab complex.
"Commercial crew is incredibly important to the space station, it's important to reduce the cost of transportation to low-Earth orbit so that NASA has within its budget the capability to develop means to explore beyond low-Earth orbit," Elbon said during a news conference at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "And importantly, I think, it's beginning a whole new industry. ... We're making great progress on the program."
Said Shotwell: "Our crew Dragon leverages the cargo capability that we've been flying successfully to the International Space Station. However, we understand, and we've been told, that crew is clearly different. So there are a number of upgrades that we've been working for the past few years to assure that this crew version of Dragon is as reliable as it can possibly be. Ultimately, we plan for it to be the most reliable spaceship flying crew ever."
In the wake of the space shuttle's retirement, NASA started a competition to build a commercial crewed spacecraft, with the first in a series of contracts intended to encourage innovative designs for reliable, affordable transportation to and from low-Earth orbit.
Last September, NASA announced that Boeing had won a $4.2 billion Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP) contract to continue development of the company's CST-100 capsule while SpaceX would receive $2.6 billion to press ahead with work to perfect its futuristic Dragon crew craft.
A third competitor, Sierra Nevada, was left out, and the company filed a protest with the General Accountability Office, arguing its Dream Chaser spaceplane was unfairly passed over. But the GAO ruled earlier this month that NASA's selection of Boeing and SpaceX was justified, clearing the space agency to proceed with the CCtCAP contracts.
SpaceX and Boeing hold contracts covering two test flights and two operational missions per company with options for additional operational missions between them.

Artist's concept of Boeing's CST-100 crew capsule separating from the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas 5 launcher. Credit: Boeing


Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft is a state-of-the-art, reusable capsule incorporating weld-less fabrication, flight proven navigation software, powerful "pusher" escape rockets to propel the capsule away from a malfunctioning booster and a parachute-and-airbag landing system.
For NASA flights, the spacecraft will be used to carry four astronauts at a time to the space station, along with critical cargo. It will be launched atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, one of the most reliable boosters in the U.S. inventory.
Elbon said construction has started on a launch pad crew access tower and work platforms needed to service CST-100s in a former shuttle processing hangar. A simulator will be installed at the Johnson Space Center in the same building that once housed shuttle flight simulators and Boeing is working out procedures to use NASA's mission control center for ascent, rendezvous and re-entry.
"The flight software will be delivered later this summer, we'll have the simulator running with the flight software and flight computers and 26 of the 34 flight displays," Elbon said. "So there will be a real opportunity for the crew to interface with that software and understand how the vehicle's going to operate."
Boeing plans a launch pad abort test in February 2017 "where we'll fully check out the abort system" before staging the first unpiloted test flight to the space station the following April. Elbon said Boeing should be ready for the first crewed test flight in July 2017. Assuming the test flights go well and NASA certifies the CST-100, Boeing expects to be ready for its first operational mission in December 2017.
SpaceX already flies to the space station under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for a dozen uncrewed cargo flights using the company's Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rockets.
The crewed version of the spacecraft will be able to carry up to seven astronauts — typically four for station missions — and features futuristic pull-down flat-screen displays, a powerful escape rocket system and sophisticated computer control. As with the automated cargo ships, the crew capsules will be launched atop Falcon 9 boosters.
Shotwell said SpaceX is gearing up for a pad abort test in the next month or so when a Dragon spacecraft will be shot off the launch pad using its escape rockets to demonstrate the ability to pull a crew away from a catastrophic low-altitude booster malfunction. A second abort test will be carried out later this year to demonstrate escape during the most aerodynamically stressful regions of powered flight.

Artist's concept of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX


"The Integrated launch abort system is critically important to us, we think it gives incredible safety features for a full abort all the way through ascent," Shotwell said. SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk hopes to eventually use the abort system for rocket-powered landings at the end of a mission, but initial flights will splash down in the ocean much like Dragon cargo missions.
While SpaceX is a relative newcomer to the rocket industry, Shotwell said the company will have launched more than 50 Falcon 9 rockets by the time astronauts strap into a Dragon V2 for the first piloted test flight. She said SpaceX will install a simulator at the Johnson Space Center for crew training, but likely will monitor ascent, rendezvous and re-entry from the company's Hawthorne, Calif., rocket plant wh ere Dragon supply flights are managed.
"We anticipate doing our uncrewed mission to the International Space Station on this upgraded crew vehicle later in '16, shortly followed thereafter with our crewed flight in early 2017, as shortly as we can make it and still maintain reliability and safety," she said. "We certainly understand the incredible responsibility we've been given to build the systems necessary and capable of flying crew."
Along with ferrying astronauts to and from the space station, the Boeing and SpaceX capsules also will be able to serve as lifeboats for station crew members, remaining attached to the station for more than 200 days at a stretch to give U.S. and partner astronauts a way home in an emergency.
The new spacecraft will be the first American vehicles to carry astronauts on NASA-sanctioned flights since the space shuttle's last mission in 2011 and the first built under more commercially structured contracts intended to lower costs.
The CST-100 and upgraded Dragon also will end America's reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for access to the International Space Station. Under NASA's latest contract with Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, U.S. seats cost around $70 million each. Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said the agency eventually will save, on average, more than $10 million a seat using U.S. spacecraft.
"Overall, when we go through the whole development activity ... we'll have invested about $5 billion," she said. "In addition, when you look at pricing for the missions across the five years we have pricing for, we're able to get an average seat cost of about $58 million per seat."
But NASA's use of Soyuz spacecraft will not end with the advent of U.S. space taxis.
Mike Suffredini, manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a Jan. 15 interview with CBS News that NASA still plans to use one seat per Soyuz for the duration of the station program. The Russians, likewise, will be able to launch a cosmonaut on each U.S.-sponsored flight.
Assuming both parties ultimately agree, "the Russians will fly twice a year, or whatever rate they need to do their job, and we will have a crew member on each of their flights," Suffredini said. "We will fly ours at whatever rate we think we need to do our job and they will put a single crew member on it."
During the news conference Monday, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said "I don't ever want to have to write another check to (the Russian federal space agency) Roscosmos after 2017, hopefully. That's why I'm looking to John and Gwynne to deliver. You've heard both of them say they think they'll be flying by 2017. If we can make that date, I'm a happy camper."
But NASA has to be prepared for contingencies and the commercial crew schedule is optimistic. Space station planners do not yet know for sure when a commercial ferry craft will begin operational missions and orders for Soyuz seats must be placed three years in advance.
"So I'm about to tell (Roscosmos) whether I want seats in 2018 right now, and we don't have any more insights (into commercial crew progress) really than the proposals," Suffredini said. "So we've got to go get some seats."
Longer term, he said NASA plans to continue flying on Soyuz after Boeing and SpaceX begin operational missions, but under a barter arrangement of some sort.
"We're assuming two Russian seats a year and we're assuming two Russians will fly in our seats per year," Suffredini said. "And it'll just be a quid pro quo, we won't ask for compensation."

[Ну-и-ну]

Чтобы доставить 8 (в год) * 7 (лет) = 56 коммерческих астронавтов с экономией 12 лямов "за билет", надо проинвестировать 5 ярдов. По ~90 лямов на билет проинвестировать, чтобы 12 сэкономить.

Если МКС утопят в 2021, то вообще "красота". Надо проинвестировать 208 лямов на билет, чтобы 12 сэкономить.

И избиратель верит, что экономия. Ну 12 лямов же.

Плохо арифиметику преподают в public schools. Нда.

[Alex_II]

Ну-и-ну пишет:
Если МКС утопят в 2021

А кто кроме нас собирается топить МКС в 2021м?

[Ну-и-ну]

Alex_II пишет:
А кто кроме нас собирается топить МКС в 2021м?

Все, кроме США.

[Антон]

Ну-и-ну пишет:
Чтобы доставить 8 (в год) * 7 (лет) = 56 коммерческих астронавтов с экономией 12 лямов "за билет", надо проинвестировать 5 ярдов. По ~90 лямов на билет проинвестировать, чтобы 12 сэкономить.

Если МКС утопят в 2021, то вообще "красота". Надо проинвестировать 208 лямов на билет, чтобы 12 сэкономить.

И избиратель верит, что экономия. Ну 12 лямов же.

Плохо арифиметику преподают в public schools. Нда.

не забывайте, что в этом случае 58 миллионов стоимости уходит не в Россию, а американцам!

[Ну-и-ну]

Антон пишет:
не забывайте

Это как раз можно и нужно приветствовать. Но "экономия" - обыкновенный обман.

[triage]

Ну-и-ну пишет:

Alex_II пишет:
А кто кроме нас собирается топить МКС в 2021м?

Все, кроме США.

кто все?

[Astro Cat]

Сколько они кораблей лепят параллельно!

1. Драгон
2. Орион
3. SCT-100
4. Dream Chaser


Последний мне наиболее симпатичен.

[Sam Grey]

Ну-и-ну пишет:

Антон пишет:
не забывайте

Это как раз можно и нужно приветствовать. Но "экономия" - обыкновенный обман.

"Экономия" здесь абсолютно не при чем. Хватит уже об этом. 

Если завтра Игорь Комаров объявит, что для НАСА все полеты астронавтов на Союзах будут бесплатными, то ничего не изменится. 
Дело в зависимости Американской пилотируемой космической программы от Российского политического руководства. Критической зависимости.  Если завтра Рогозин опять им скажет чтоб на батуте летали - то что? На МКС будут жить три российских космонавта вместе с  Сарой Брайтман? 

И с РД-180 то же самое, кстати. Никто ж особо не обсуждает, сколько Штаты экономят, используя его для Атласа. Просто опять вопрос зависимости от того же Рогозина. 

Когда эта зависимость не критична (как в случае с Антаресом) - то и проблем никаких. 

Вон, парой постов выше цитата Суфредини о том, что с 18 года будет обмен местами на кораблях: "We're assuming two Russian seats a year and we're assuming two Russians will fly in our seats per year," Suffredini said. "And it'll just be a quid pro quo, we won't ask for compensation."

[ronatu]

С 17-го года у нас будут свои корабли а с 19-го свои аналоги РД-180.
Как говорится для обеспечения национальной безопасности и доступа в космос.

[ronatu]

Astro Cat пишет:
Сколько они кораблей лепят параллельно!

1. Драгон
2. Орион
3. SCT-100
4. Dream Chaser


Последний мне наиболее симпатичен.

Капитализм. Что возмешь.
Спрос рождает предложение.
А симпатичные не побеждают в капиталистическом соревновании...  

[ronatu]

Ну-и-ну пишет:
Чтобы доставить 8 (в год) * 7 (лет) = 56 коммерческих астронавтов с экономией 12 лямов "за билет", надо проинвестировать 5 ярдов. По ~90 лямов на билет проинвестировать, чтобы 12 сэкономить.
И избиратель верит, что экономия. ....

Экономия тут не при чем. Это политика и отсутсвие батута.
Можно конечно полагаться на помощь (сотрудничество) других стран, но только на помощь дружественных стран.
Современная, Путинская Россия к ним никаким боком.

[Ну-и-ну]

pnetmon пишет:
кто все?

Строго говоря, вообще все. Нет ни одного обязывающего документа (закона, договора), согласно которому после 2020 на МКС будет выделен хоть один цент.

[Ну-и-ну]

ronatu пишет:
Экономия тут не при чем. Это политика и отсутсвие батута.
Можно конечно полагаться на помощь (сотрудничество) других стран, но только на помощь дружественных стран.
Современная, Путинская Россия к ним никаким боком.

Коммерческие пилотируемые планы изначально были оформлены в виде COTS-D в ЕМНИП 2006. Они никак не относятся к современной политической ситуации.

Общая причина, понятно, "США подобает летать на МКС на своём корабле". И не подобает летать на чужом. Что абсолютно правильно, даже странно обсуждать.

Но беда в том, что СМИ продолжают петь про "экономию от частников". Сие есть обман и не подобает.

[Ну-и-ну]

Astro Cat пишет:
Сколько они кораблей лепят параллельно!

1. Драгон
2. Орион
3. SCT-100
4. Dream Chaser


Последний мне наиболее симпатичен.

Последний-то и отменили. Ориона к МКС тоже на данный момент не планируют.