William Atkins
Wednesday, 24 December 2008 22:27
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
NASA announced on Tuesday, December 23, 2008, that it has awarded two contacts for twenty commercial flights to re-supply cargo to the International Space Station. NASA is preparing for the future of the U.S. space program with the help of the private space sector.
The NASA media release “
NASA awards Space Station commercial resupply services contracts” states that it has awarded two contracts—one contract to Orbital Sciences Corporation (
OSC, Dulles, Virginia) and another one to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (
SpaceX, Hawthorne, California).
The two contracts consist of eight flights for OSC and twelve flights for SpaceX.
The contracts are worth about $1.9 billion for OSC, and approximately $1.6 billion for SpaceX. The maximum value of each contract is $3.1 billion for each.
NASA states,
“These fixed-price indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts will begin Jan. 1, 2009, and are effective through Dec. 31, 2016. The contracts each call for the delivery of a minimum of 20 metric tons of upmass cargo to the space station."
"The contracts also call for delivery of non-standard services in support of the cargo resupply, including analysis and special tasks as the government determines are necessary.”
Requirements within each contract state that milestones must be met by each company in order to continue with the flights. NASA will periodically review each contact.
Page two continues with more information on the future of cargo mission to the ISS.
