National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Transitioning Toward the Future of Commercial Human Spaceflight

COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM

AIAA Spring Dinner Meeting

Maria ColluraCommercial Crew Program

Acting Deputy DirectorMay 19, 2011

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STS-134 - Making History

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Commercial Space Initiative

"The President's 2012 budget request boosts funding for our partnership with the commercial space industry and prioritizes our efforts to ensure that American astronauts and the cargo they need are transported by American companies rather than continuing to outsource this work to foreign governments.”

"This new approach in getting our crews and cargo into orbit will create good jobs and expand opportunities for our American economy. If we are to win the future and out build our competitors, it's essential that we make this program a success.” - Charlie Bolden

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Program Approach

• The 2010 NASA Authorization Act established Commercial Crew as the primary means for ISS crew transportation

• The Program objective is to facilitate the development of a U.S. Commercial Crew space transportation capability for achieving safe, reliable, and cost effective access to and from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station (ISS) by late 2016– Use a non-traditional acquisition and partnering

approach– Competition is a fundamental aspect of the strategy– NASA could purchase commercial services to meet its

ISS crew transportation needs

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Missions

Demo/Test Flights

Commercial Crew

Fiscal Year

CertificationCritical DesignInitial Design

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Commercial Crew Program (CCP)

– Kennedy Space Center will host the Program Office dedicated to enabling commercial human spaceflight capabilities

– Program Manager will reside at KSC– Deputy Program Manager located at JSC

Program Mission– Manage the investment in the development

of commercial end-to-end transportation systems

– Manage the CTS (Crew Transportation System) certification process

– Lead the technical and programmatic partner integration and approval functions

CCP is leading NASA’s efforts to develop an American-made commercial capability for crew transportation and rescue services to the station following this year's retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet

Insight/Oversight - Level of Involvement

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NASA will perform insight/oversight on the Commercial Partner’s design, development, and certification process to evaluate the end-to-end crew

transportation system

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Phase 1: Initial Design Concepts

Commercial Crew Development

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Phase 2: Maturing Design Elements

Commercial Crew Development

System Description: Crew transportation system comprised of a reusable biconic Space Vehicle launched first on an Atlas V launch vehicle and then on Blue Origin’s own Reusable Booster System.

CCDev2 Content: Mature Space Vehicle design through System Requirements Review, mature the Pusher Escape System, and accelerate engine development for Reusable Booster System. NASA investment: $22M 9

Blue Origin

System Description: Commercial crew transportation system comprises the reusable CST-100 spacecraft, launch services, and ground systems. CST-100 is compatible with multiple launch vehicles and is reusable for up to ten missions.

CCDev2 Content: Mature CST-100 design through Preliminary Design Review & perform development tests.

NASA investment: $92.3M

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The Boeing Company

System Description: Dream Chaser is a reusable, piloted lifting body, derived from NASA HL-20 launched on an Atlas V.

CCDev2 Content: Mature Dream Chaser design through a Preliminary Design Review with some subsystems to Critical Design Review, and conduct significant hardware testing.

NASA investment: $80M

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Sierra Nevada Corporation

System Description: The crew transportation system is based on the existing Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft which have been designed since inception for crew carriage with relatively minimal modification. Both the longest-lead and most safety-critical system is the Launch Abort System.

CCDev2 Content: Mature the flight-proven Falcon 9 / Dragon transportation system focusing on developing an integrated, side-mounted Launch abort System. 12

NASA investment: $75M

Space X

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Commercial Crew Impact

• First ever Human Spaceflight Program located in Florida at KSC• Commercial Crew Development – CCDev2

– Investment of $269 Million• Commercial Crew Development – Completion

– NASA Investment of approximately of $5-6 Billion over five years• Commercial Crew Services

– NASA ISS needs 2-3 service flights per year– Various Commercial markets could add additional flights

• Florida Space Coast could benefit from the Commercial Crew Program at KSC– Many of the Partner/Contractor activities could locate in Florida– Program Management Offices– Engineering– Manufacturing– Processing, Operations, Launch and Recovery

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• A successful Commercial Crew Program will:– Transform human spaceflight for future generations– Result in safe, reliable, cost effective crew

transportation to LEO and for the ISS– Use Spaceflight talent in the local area– Reduce reliance on foreign systems– Free NASA’s limited resources for beyond-LEO

capabilities

Summary

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QUESTIONS?