So far NASA hasn't funded or deeply studied commercial crew access to the ISS.
Quote from: Antares on 08/30/2008 06:27 pmSo far NASA hasn't funded or deeply studied commercial crew access to the ISS.so Falcon 9 and Dragon are just a fantasy?? I thought they were serious projects with milestones and target dates...
Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft can carry up to 2000kg and has agreed to take 20 tons in 8 flights to the ISS2000kg * 8 = 16TSpaceX's Dragon can carry atlest 3600kg and have 12 flights planed to the ISS to take there 20 tons.3600kg*12 = 43.2T (they cant be planing to fail up to 50% of the time can they?)I'm cleary missing somthing here or have got somthing very wrong. Has wikipedia lied to me?
WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded two contracts -- one to Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., and one to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif. -- for commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station. At the time of award, NASA has ordered eight flights valued at about $1.9 billion from Orbital and 12 flights valued at about $1.6 billion from SpaceX.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.NASA has set production milestones and reviews on the contracts to monitor progress toward providing services. The maximum potential value of each contract is about $3.1 billion. Based on known requirements, the value of both contracts combined is projected at $3.5 billion.
I'm cleary missing somthing here or have got somthing very wrong. Has wikipedia lied to me?
Quote from: Tnarg on 09/08/2009 10:54 amI'm cleary missing somthing here or have got somthing very wrong. Has wikipedia lied to me?never use wikipedia for space info.
Quote from: Jim on 09/08/2009 12:03 pmQuote from: Tnarg on 09/08/2009 10:54 amI'm cleary missing somthing here or have got somthing very wrong. Has wikipedia lied to me?never use wikipedia for space info.The 2000kg numbers come from an Orbital document. Wikipedia articles always have a reference if they're serious. There's nothing wrong with using them as a source if you have the time to click on the reference link.http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/Publications/Cygnus_fact.pdf
Space X is an excellent design team.
Quote from: Danny Dot on 09/08/2009 01:28 pmSpace X is an excellent design team.Until they grasp systems engineering, they will not achieve excellence. They make no attempt to do so.
What's the volume of the Cygnus PCM and Dragon?
My guess is, nonsensical spin aside, the divide between excellence and lack of it will be in the gap between the lists.