Tag: Commercial Crew

Boeing Completes Final CCiCap Milestones (Again?)

Boeing Completes Final CCiCap Milestones (Again?)

Image Credit: Boeing Note: NASA’s start work /stop work/ start work edicts to Boeing and SpaceX due to the Sierra Nevada Commercial Crew bid protest do not apply to the work being performed under CCiCap. The timing of this announcement is also a little strange. Boeing announced in August that it had completed all of […]

Update: NewSpace V. Old Ways and SpaceX in Congressional Crosshairs

Update: NewSpace V. Old Ways and SpaceX in Congressional Crosshairs

Image Credit : SpaceX On Monday, Innerspace reported on a story in Space News about an excerpt from a letter sent by U.S. Representatives  Lamar Smith (Tx) and Steven Palazzo, (Ms) to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden regarding the possible use of Orion as a backup to Commercial Crew. Significantly, the letter also questioned whether or […]

Av Week Article Gives More Insight Into NASA’s Commercial Crew Decision

Av Week Article Gives More Insight Into NASA’s Commercial Crew Decision

Image Credit: Boeing The NASA source selection statement for Commercial Crew is still not publicly available, at least officially, but Aviation Week has obtained a copy, and the resulting article sheds some light on what its says. From the article: “The internal document, signed by NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier on Sept. 15, the day […]

NewSpace V. Old Ways : Could Congress Be Planning to Replace Dragon With Orion?

NewSpace V. Old Ways : Could Congress Be Planning to Replace Dragon With Orion?

In case anyone thought NASA’s announcement of two winners in the Commercial Crew program, one of which was Boeing, signified a new era of cordial relations between “NewSpace” advocates for Commercial Crew and those who remain firmly in the camp of the “OldSpace” approach as represented by the SLS/Orion program, a letter from two key […]

NASA Changes Course, Directs Commercial Crew Work to Proceed

NASA Changes Course, Directs Commercial Crew Work to Proceed

Note: NASA has made the right call here. The SNC protest can go on, even as work does as well. One wonders why this took as long as it did. Presumably it took until today to get a legal opinion. NASA News Story: NASA Exercises Authority to Proceed with Commercial Crew Contracts On Sept. 16, […]

Did Boeing Really Beat SpaceX? Fact Checking NASA Leaks

Did Boeing Really Beat SpaceX? Fact Checking NASA Leaks

The Wall Street Journal’s Andy Pasztor has a less than stellar record when it comes to reporting on SpaceX, as readers may recall from this confused mishmash of story conflating an upcoming announcement from Blue Origin with NASA’s entirely separate announcement of the results of its Commercial Crew awards which came out the next day. […]

Stratolaunch Teams With SNC for a Dream Chaser Mini-Me

Stratolaunch Teams With SNC for a Dream Chaser Mini-Me

A press release from Sierra Nevada Corporation issued in advance of a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress suggests a somewhat diminished version of its Dream Chaser space plane may have a future irrespective of what happens with the protest the company has lodged regarding NASA’s Commercial Crew CCtCap award. SNC Press Release: SPARKS, Nev. […]

SpaceX Breaks Ground, Dragon Berths and a New Era Begins

SpaceX Breaks Ground, Dragon Berths and a New Era Begins

Artists Rendering of South Texas Launch Pad: Credit SpaceX Drawing a dramatic seven day period to a close, the SpaceX CRS-4 Dragon spacecraft was successfully berthed to the International Space Station at 8:21 am CDT this morning. One week ago today, SpaceX was named one of two winners in the final phase of NASA’s Commercial […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Maintaining the International Space Station Through 2024 : NASA OIG Report

Maintaining the International Space Station Through 2024 : NASA OIG Report

NASA’s Office of Inspector General released a report yesterday outlining several issues facing NASA as it seeks to extent the operating life of the International Space Station from current threshold of 2020, until at least 2024. The good news is that there are no outstanding technical issues which seriously threaten the ability to keep the […]

Posted in: ISS, NASA
More Good News for SpaceX and a Billion Dollar “Subsidy” for ULA

More Good News for SpaceX and a Billion Dollar “Subsidy” for ULA

Image Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s really good Tuesday, which saw the company win a potential $2.6 billion dollar share of NASA’s Commercial Crew program was also highlighted by an advance in another of the company’s long sought goals. Amid all the publicity surrounding the NASA award,  Space News reported that the Air Force believes the company […]

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