SpaceX awarded CCtCap contract worth $2.6B
Ever since the last Space Shuttle mission flew in 2011, the only crew access to the International Space Station since has been via the Russian Soyuz system.
So, NASA announced the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) programme, soliciting bids from commercial companies to provide crew access to the ISS by 2017. The main bidders for CCtCap were Boeing (of Saturn V, Delta IV and (with Lockeed-Martin) Atlas V fame), Sierra Nevada (with their in-development Dream Chaser) and SpaceX (with their Falcon 9).
A short while ago, NASA announced that Boeing and SpaceX have both been awarded contracts to build the next generation of spaceships to take crew to and from the ISS.
They both have contracts for 6 launches each, starting in 2017, and based on their the amounts they bid, Boeing have been awarded $4.2B, while SpaceX have been awarded $2.6B. Meaning, SpaceX were able to out-bid Boeing by 38% on the contract, with enough evidence to convince NASA that they would actually be able to do the job for the amount they bid.
For anyone interested in space travel, exploration and colonisation, and hoping that boundaries continue to get pushed back, this is great news. SpaceX, or rather, founder & CEO Elon Musk, wants to put people on Mars. Providing commercial launching services to other people with an immediate need to get stuff to space is how they're funding the development of the tech to do that. Although they have a pretty busy cargo manifest through to year end 2016 already, having a customer with a need for crewed access to space to help fund that stage of their development is huge. They'd have done it anyway without the NASA contract, but this removes a lot of uncertainty around funding and timeframes.
The reusable launch system should be pretty far along by then, if not actually up and running. Even if they always use brand new rocket cores for crewed launches, if they can reuse them afterwards for cargo missions, that will lower their per-launch costs by spreading them over multiple flights, and they'll be making even more profit on each mission to fund the next stage of development.
Fingers crossed for their ISS resupply mission (CRS-4) on Saturday!
Edit:
NASA press release
SpaceX press release
So, NASA announced the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) programme, soliciting bids from commercial companies to provide crew access to the ISS by 2017. The main bidders for CCtCap were Boeing (of Saturn V, Delta IV and (with Lockeed-Martin) Atlas V fame), Sierra Nevada (with their in-development Dream Chaser) and SpaceX (with their Falcon 9).
A short while ago, NASA announced that Boeing and SpaceX have both been awarded contracts to build the next generation of spaceships to take crew to and from the ISS.
They both have contracts for 6 launches each, starting in 2017, and based on their the amounts they bid, Boeing have been awarded $4.2B, while SpaceX have been awarded $2.6B. Meaning, SpaceX were able to out-bid Boeing by 38% on the contract, with enough evidence to convince NASA that they would actually be able to do the job for the amount they bid.
For anyone interested in space travel, exploration and colonisation, and hoping that boundaries continue to get pushed back, this is great news. SpaceX, or rather, founder & CEO Elon Musk, wants to put people on Mars. Providing commercial launching services to other people with an immediate need to get stuff to space is how they're funding the development of the tech to do that. Although they have a pretty busy cargo manifest through to year end 2016 already, having a customer with a need for crewed access to space to help fund that stage of their development is huge. They'd have done it anyway without the NASA contract, but this removes a lot of uncertainty around funding and timeframes.
The reusable launch system should be pretty far along by then, if not actually up and running. Even if they always use brand new rocket cores for crewed launches, if they can reuse them afterwards for cargo missions, that will lower their per-launch costs by spreading them over multiple flights, and they'll be making even more profit on each mission to fund the next stage of development.
Fingers crossed for their ISS resupply mission (CRS-4) on Saturday!
Edit:
NASA press release
SpaceX press release