The Technological and Economic impact of a New Cold War

TalkBack 1 of 18:

Next »

• Thread View
• Flat View

Private space transportation

Interestingly, the weakening US-Russian relationship may end up being very good for the US private space industry. Even before the latest souring of relations, NASA made contingency plans to limit dependency on Soyuz and avoid relying on the Russian space program any more than they had to. The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program puts $500 million of funding toward demonstration flights for ISS cargo resupply and recovery, and also includes specifications, though currently not funding, for crew transport. Two contractors, SpaceX and Orbital, are currently being funded for COTS demonstration flights and others are reportedly being worked with.

While SpaceX has yet to sucessfully place a payload into orbit with one of its Falcon rockets, and news out of Orbital has been slow, there are still two years left before the shuttle's planned demise. SpaceX plans for three NASA COTS demos including a docking test by the end of 2010, and their launch manifest also lists several other Falcon 9 missions with other customers before and after the NASA demonstrations. If those flights go well they will presumably be awarded cargo contracts through at least 2015.

Mishaps aside, cargo transport appears to be well on its way to happening, but crew transport is a stickier issue. Although both the funded COTS contractors are planning crew transport capability, NASA's budget does not yet include funding for that capability, and it may never. Test flights will have to go very well before NASA is going to approve flying astronauts on a relatively unproven vessel, but Congress will surely be more open to funding crew service on one or more of the COTS spacecraft if the only alternative is paying a hostile Russia for service on Soyuz. (It also doesn't help Russia's case that Soyuz has had problems with the last couple of landings...)

Posted by: Ross_D   Posted on: 09/01/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now
• CDW Services Overview: Unified Communications CDW Businesses that utilize unified communications solutions empower employees ... Download Now
• Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now