Orbital Sciences Corporation has updated its schedule and milestones for the Taurus II launch vehicle and the Cygnus spacecraft. The new information can be viewed at http://www.orbital.com/TaurusII/.
Perhaps they'll fly some sort of Cygnus engineering test article on the risk reduction flight?
It would be interesting to know if the payload simulator would be launched into the same orbit as an ISS-bound Cygnus.
Quote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)That puts a new light on how much NASA contribution has been made to SpaceX overall...a subject for further discussion in the SpaceX forum, I expect.
Wow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.
Quote from: HMXHMX on 02/17/2011 10:50 pmQuote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)That puts a new light on how much NASA contribution has been made to SpaceX overall...a subject for further discussion in the SpaceX forum, I expect.Then again, given the history of recent NASA programs, would you do any work for them without getting regular payments as you prepare?
Quote from: kkattula on 02/19/2011 10:42 amQuote from: HMXHMX on 02/17/2011 10:50 pmQuote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)That puts a new light on how much NASA contribution has been made to SpaceX overall...a subject for further discussion in the SpaceX forum, I expect.Then again, given the history of recent NASA programs, would you do any work for them without getting regular payments as you prepare?No, I wouldn't, and never have.There is a reason why I proposed the use of fixed-price hardware milestones funded by an "other transactions" authority (also known as a "Space Act" Agreement) in 2004, as t/Space's contribution to the CE&R contracts. Our proposal created the momentum for what became COTS, and provided the opportunity for SpaceX and Orbital to develop their respective launchers. The history of this effort is not well known.Unfortunately, COTS failed to follow a number of key provisions of our proposal, leading directly to some of the problems we are currently seeing, but that discussion is off topic for this thread.
Quote from: HMXHMX on 02/19/2011 04:38 pmQuote from: kkattula on 02/19/2011 10:42 amQuote from: HMXHMX on 02/17/2011 10:50 pmQuote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)That puts a new light on how much NASA contribution has been made to SpaceX overall...a subject for further discussion in the SpaceX forum, I expect.Then again, given the history of recent NASA programs, would you do any work for them without getting regular payments as you prepare?No, I wouldn't, and never have.There is a reason why I proposed the use of fixed-price hardware milestones funded by an "other transactions" authority (also known as a "Space Act" Agreement) in 2004, as t/Space's contribution to the CE&R contracts. Our proposal created the momentum for what became COTS, and provided the opportunity for SpaceX and Orbital to develop their respective launchers. The history of this effort is not well known.Unfortunately, COTS failed to follow a number of key provisions of our proposal, leading directly to some of the problems we are currently seeing, but that discussion is off topic for this thread.Then start a new thread! :-)I think I've heard bits of the story from time to time in our discussions over the years, but it would be great to have them in one place. If you don't want to do it here, I'd love to do it as a guestpost on SB. ~Jon
Quote from: HMXHMX on 02/17/2011 10:50 pmQuote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)I would believe it is more since they are based on milestone payments and Spacex has more missions further in the integration cycle.
Quote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)
Maybe after my Space Access 2011 talk in April, which will recount the history. It's all water under the bridge these days, in any case.
Quote from: Jim on 02/17/2011 11:02 pmQuote from: HMXHMX on 02/17/2011 10:50 pmQuote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)I would believe it is more since they are based on milestone payments and Spacex has more missions further in the integration cycle.However the per flight contract value for Orbital under CRS is much higher,
Quote from: AlexCam on 02/19/2011 08:52 pmQuote from: Jim on 02/17/2011 11:02 pmQuote from: HMXHMX on 02/17/2011 10:50 pmQuote from: Antares on 02/17/2011 08:41 pmWow. I'm listening to the ORB earnings web cast. I think I heard them say they made $278M on the CRS contract in CY10.Which suggests that SpaceX should have received about $240M (in proportion to awarded amount). ($1.9B/1.6B)I would believe it is more since they are based on milestone payments and Spacex has more missions further in the integration cycle.However the per flight contract value for Orbital under CRS is much higher,Cygnus can deliver more pressurized volume, so it receives more money.
The CCDev2 money is awaiting allocation at the moment.There are rumours of a CCDev3, consequently its milestones have not been bid yet.
[...] Inspring FY 2012, the CCDev Round 2 awards will be completed and NASA plans to further expandcommercial crew systems under CCDev Round 3 awards. Round 3 awards will supportdevelopment, testing, and demonstrations of multiple commercial crew systems for U.S. crewaccess to LEO and the ISS.
Budget Authority, $ in millions FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016Commercial Crew $850.0 $850.0 $850.0 $850.0 $850.0
That's from the 2012 Budget Estimate document (p. 396 of the pdf, labeled ESMD-3).http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/516675main_NASA_FY12_Budget_Estimates.pdfFrom the same document:Budget Authority, $ in millions FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016Commercial Crew $850.0 $850.0 $850.0 $850.0 $850.0
Quote from: sdsds on 02/19/2011 10:36 pmThat's from the 2012 Budget Estimate document (p. 396 of the pdf, labeled ESMD-3).http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/516675main_NASA_FY12_Budget_Estimates.pdfFrom the same document:Budget Authority, $ in millions FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016Commercial Crew $850.0 $850.0 $850.0 $850.0 $850.0Those amounts don't mean all that much though given that some key NASA players in Congress have already rejected the President's NASA 2012 budget.
Looks like you could fit an entire Pegasus in that faring, including the wings...
Orbital Sciences Corporation has posted an update, dated March 2011, at http://www.orbital.com/TaurusII/.