NASA Administrator Announces New Commercial Crew And Cargo Milestones

Aug. 23, 2012

David Weaver
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
david.s.weaver@nasa.gov


RELEASE: 12-293

NASA ADMINISTRATOR ANNOUNCES NEW COMMERCIAL CREW AND CARGO MILESTONES

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced
Thursday new milestones in the nation's commercial space initiatives
from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The latest
advances made by NASA's commercial space partners pave the way for
the first contracted flight of cargo to the International Space
Station (ISS) this fall and mark progress toward a launch of
astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5 years.

Bolden announced Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed
its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services (COTS). SpaceX is scheduled to launch the
first of its 12 contracted cargo flights to the space station from
Cape Canaveral in October, under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services
Program.

"We're working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in
space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across
the United States," Bolden said. "And we're working to in-source the
work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back
here to the U.S. where it belongs."

Through the COTS program, NASA provides investments to stimulate the
American commercial space industry. As part of its COTS partnership,
SpaceX became the first commercial company to resupply the space
station in May, successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon
spacecraft to the orbiting complex. During the historic mission, the
Dragon was captured by astronauts using the station's robot arm,
unloaded and safely returned to Earth carrying experiments conducted
aboard ISS. Later this winter, Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to carry
out its first test flight under COTS.

Bolden also announced NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corp. has conducted
its first milestone under the agency's recently announced Commercial
Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. The milestone, a
program implementation plan review, marks an important first step in
Sierra Nevada's efforts to develop a crew transportation system with
its Dream Chaser spacecraft.

CCiCap is an initiative of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an
Obama administration priority. The objective of the CCP is 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 the space station and low Earth
orbit. After the capability is matured, it is expected to be
available to the government and other customers. NASA could contract
to purchase commercial services to meet its station crew
transportation needs later this decade.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial
spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion
spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and
heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human
exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for
crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence
beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across
the solar system.

For more information about NASA's commercial space initiatives and
programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercial

For more information about the present and future of American human
spaceflight, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration


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