SPACEHAB Terminate Space Act Agreement (COTS)

[Chris Bergin]

Very short and strange release...that does not appear to have been released to the media (got it via 'other' avenues), so either I've not seen it yet, or this is new news?

SPACEHAB Requests Termination of Space Act Agreement with NASA

On May 29, 2008, SPACEHAB notified NASA that the company intended to unilaterally terminate,
within 30 days, their Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA related to the Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services (COTS) project because the company was unable to continue to meet the
milestones in the agreement using only internal funding. SPACEHAB completed the first two
milestones, a Project Management Plan and a Systems Requirements Review last year. As allowed by the
terms of the agreement, on June 18, 2008, NASA acknowledged that the SAA would be
terminated as of June 28, 2008.

Background:
In June 2007, NASA signed a nonreimburseable Space Act Agreement (SAA) with SPACEHAB Inc. to
facilitate SPACEHAB’s anticipated development of a commercial space transportation system capable of
ferrying cargo between Earth and Low Earth Orbit and eventually the International Space Station. That
SAA is one of five unfunded SAAs NASA has signed with industry for the development of commercial
space transportation capabilities in addition to two funded agreements under the COTS project.

[docmordrid]

Spent some time searching for this and can't find it anywhere but here. Interesting.....

[Chris Bergin]

I think we may have ourselves a sad exclusive.

[Stowbridge]

I think we may have ourselves a sad exclusive.

You have. Some blog sites, the next day, are now running this as "according to sources" So it wasn't something that was already released.

[antonioe]

Sad indeed, but not entirely unpredictable.  It's very, VERY hard to raise the financing  to develop the systems required to provide the ISS resupply services, given the monopsonistic nature of the market and its very size and technical difficulty.

I wonder what will be the fate of the other unfunded COTS Space Act Agreements...

[robertross]

Sad indeed, but not entirely unpredictable.  It's very, VERY hard to raise the financing  to develop the systems required to provide the ISS resupply services, given the monopsonistic nature of the market and its very size and technical difficulty.

I wonder what will be the fate of the other unfunded COTS Space Act Agreements...

As was put forth in many other threads on the topic of ISS resupply: Until you have a COTS spacecraft that has proven itself and is being used, the 'gap' is still up in the air.

We now have a smaller field in play. It is sad. Thanks for the exclusive Chris.

[marsavian]

Sad indeed, but not entirely unpredictable.  It's very, VERY hard to raise the financing  to develop the systems required to provide the ISS resupply services, given the monopsonistic nature of the market and its very size and technical difficulty.

I wonder what will be the fate of the other unfunded COTS Space Act Agreements...

Collapse unless driven by either Lockheed Martin, Boeing or ATK. The only way small players were going to progress were if they got the RpK reaward and that didn't happen. So it's down to 2-5 well-heeled big players including yourselves.

[synchrotron]

I wonder what will be the fate of the other unfunded COTS Space Act Agreements...

Collapse unless driven by either Lockheed Martin, Boeing or ATK. The only way small players were going to progress were if they got the RpK reaward and that didn't happen. So it's down to 2-5 well-heeled big players including yourselves.

Erm.  Orbital has a market capitalization of ~$1.5B split across launch vehicles and spacecraft.  That ain't a well-heeled player, rather a small and innovative one.  Lockheed Martin, by comparison, stands at ~$40B.  Boeing at ~$50B.  An order of magnitude difference.

[marsavian]

Their Space Divisions are a small fraction of that and have to pay their own way which evens things up quite a bit.

[antonioe]

I wonder what will be the fate of the other unfunded COTS Space Act Agreements...

Collapse unless driven by either Lockheed Martin, Boeing or ATK.

Why would LM, Boeing or ATK need the small partners?  If they REALLY wanted to get the CRS business, they could very well bid as primes.

[marsavian]

I wonder what will be the fate of the other unfunded COTS Space Act Agreements...

Collapse unless driven by either Lockheed Martin, Boeing or ATK.

Why would LM, Boeing or ATK need the small partners?  If they REALLY wanted to get the CRS business, they could very well bid as primes.

They may have (patented) ideas that are useful.