NASA Taps 7 Commercial Firms For Suborbital Flights

coondoggie writes "NASA this week picked seven commercial space companies to fly a manner of experiments on their suborbital aircraft. According to NASA the companies will split $10 million and get a two-year contract that will let NASA set up a pool of reusable suborbital systems that could help it test applications in everything from astrobiology to measuring the impact of a solar storm."

Comments

what a joke....

[Dolphinzilla]

10 millions dollars isn't enough to do the paperwork that is involved with working with NASA let alone doing anything useful. Especially since its is split between 7 contractors - clearly a move designed to make it look like the US Space program isn't dead.....

Re:what a joke....

[derGoldstein]

10 million isn't enough to do the paperwork *within* NASA. We're talking about separate small companies, who will have a drastically different approach. This is a good idea -- push (support) the commercial efforts for a relatively low cost and see which innovations they can use themselves down the line.

Huge budgets lead to bloat and bureaucracy. Small companies will be forced to look at every dollar spent, and be result-oriented.

Re:what a joke....

[Gravatron]

You don't always need to get to orbit to do research. For example, take a look at sounding rockets and the science they do.

Re:what a joke....

[derGoldstein]

Agreed.
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Aeronautics: Noun: The science or practice of travel through the air.

Aeronautics are a key part of the research. I don't see how this is a "step back" -- it's necessary, and right now it fits the budget.

Re:what a joke....

[downix]

NASA does many such contracts on a regular basis. This is for suborbital research, commonly done on vehicles such as the Black Brant and Terrior, a class of vehicles called Sounding Rockets. Several small companies have stepped forward with new suborbital programs which cost far less than these older systems, such as Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo, Blue Origin's New Shepherd and the XCOR Lynx, and the old contracts expire next year, so this is the right time to gather replacements.

The last contract setup cost us $4 million, but was in 1998, so with inflation in place, $10 million sounds about right.

Re:what a joke....

[downix]

NASA does plenty of suborbital work for research purposes. You can read about it here:

http://rscience.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Re:what a joke....

[shadowfaxcrx]

I never said sub orbital is pointless.

But we've been doing sub orbital since 1961. To go back to the level of capability we had then is pretty pathetic. Especially since we have (yes we, because we paid for and hauled most of it) a space station up there and can't get to it without crawling to other countries for a cab ride. I find that to be pretty stupid. If you haven't noticed, relations between the US and Russia are. . Strained. It doesn't take a giant leap of the imagination to conclude that some day Medvedev or Putin might just decide they don't like us anymore and tell us to pound sand when we want to get to or from the ISS.

Yes I know private companies have promised they'll get us a ride there real soon now, but look at how long the 787 was delayed. And that's an airplane. Private companies have been building those for hundreds of years. They're real good at it. Anyone who seriously thinks the private space companies are going to stay on schedule is deluding himself.

But hey. We're back to 1961 space technology. We can get to not-quite-orbit. I say again, go us.

Interesting approach

[derGoldstein]

Kind of like the Darpa "Cyber-Fast Track initiative". It's a type of "outsourcing" to that takes advantage of ideas outside the organization. Independent companies will have a much greater incentive to reduce costs.