COTS D in the On-Deck Circle...

[yg1968]

It means - if I understand this - that SpaceX already has a Space Act Agreement. Plus, this is $50 million, while SpaceX already has a $1.6 billion cargo contract.

Space X doesn't have a commercial crew award except for the old COTS-D option. The old COTS-D option will likely not be exercised by NASA as only Space X was chosen for COTS-D and NASA doesn't want to have a single participant in the commercial crew initiative.

In any event, this is only the $50M for CCDev from the Stimilus package. SpaceX will get another shot at this when the next awards are offered for solliciations.

[Ben the Space Brit]

Well, it looks like commercial crew is about to become the only game in town, at least as far as US-indigenous crew launch goes.  IIRC, it took government-funded HSF about seven or eight years to progress from the first LEO missions to gaining BEO capability.  I wonder how well the commercial guys will do... especially as it looks like NASA won't be able to guarantee any BEO mission at this stage.

[Robotbeat]

I saw a SpaceX crewed Dragon capsule in NASA's newest budget web page:
http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
This latest move is good for SpaceX, since they are the furthest along in commercial crew spacecraft, even if they didn't get the $50 million stimulus.

BTW, what the heck is Blue Origin doing? They are mentioned as recipients of this $50 million. This is something I'd be VERY interested in finding out.

[Chris-A]

http://twitter.com/jeff_foust
http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php

Jeff Foust and Clark Lindsey reports the comments from the CSF teleconference.

[Lampyridae]

Bigelow getting the moolah plus Bigelow's comments make me think that we may see Bigelow inflatables attached to the ISS. NASA is not *yet* a client, but I think that may change.

[Comga]

....
BTW, what the heck is Blue Origin doing? They are mentioned as recipients of this $50 million. This is something I'd be VERY interested in finding out.

They get $3.7M, nowhere near the whole $50M.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30125

They are doing test flights and have also put out interface specifications for scientific experiments
http://www.blueorigin.com/nsresearch.html
but here is the stated reason:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=10685.msg533494#msg533494
a "pusher" escape system, it would seem. 
Better discussed here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20268.0

Lampyridae: What "moolah" for Bigelow?  Not CCDEV. Do you have a reference?

[HMXHMX]

I saw a SpaceX crewed Dragon capsule in NASA's newest budget web page:
http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
This latest move is good for SpaceX, since they are the furthest along in commercial crew spacecraft, even if they didn't get the $50 million stimulus.

BTW, what the heck is Blue Origin doing? They are mentioned as recipients of this $50 million. This is something I'd be VERY interested in finding out.

Reading between the lines with no actual knowledge of their program, I'd say a reusable capsule, to be launched on an ELV (initially, though later on their own RLV).  Possibly with a rocket landing system that doubles as an integrated abort system (i.e., the "pusher").  The Source Selection Authority uses these words:

"... accelerate the availability of its [Blue Origin's] suborbital vehicles as an orbital commercial transportation capability ..."

to illuminate his comments and therefore I'd guess their suborbital vehicle is being proposed as a reusable orbital capsule.  Makes some sense.

[Lampyridae]

Lampyridae: What "moolah" for Bigelow?  Not CCDEV. Do you have a reference?

Whoops, mistake there. No actual moolah for Bigelow, yet. Some talk about a crewed capsule. Not sure if it belongs to Boeing or Bigelow.

[yg1968]

It seems that Boeing had it's own proposal separate from Bigelow's. But the Selection statement says that Bigelow could be a client of Boeing. So there appears to be some form of cooperation betwen Boeing and Bigelow. 

[HMXHMX]

Lampyridae: What "moolah" for Bigelow?  Not CCDEV. Do you have a reference?

Whoops, mistake there. No actual moolah for Bigelow, yet. Some talk about a crewed capsule. Not sure if it belongs to Boeing or Bigelow.

From the Source:  "Boeing included as part of its prposal a teaming arrangement with Bigelow Aerospace..."

Bigelow bid as a prime separately but also as a teammate with Boeing.  They lost the former and won the latter.

[yg1968]

See this thread for more information on the CCDev winners that were announced yesterday.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20268.0

[docmordrid]

I saw a SpaceX crewed Dragon capsule in NASA's newest budget web page:
http://www.nasa.gov/news/budget/index.html
This latest move is good for SpaceX, since they are the furthest along in commercial crew spacecraft, even if they didn't get the $50 million stimulus.

BTW, what the heck is Blue Origin doing? They are mentioned as recipients of this $50 million. This is something I'd be VERY interested in finding out.

Other threads say a pusher LAS.

This pic?

[Jim]

YG, this is why you are sometimes badly misinformed. You can't rely on blog sites and tweets from writers with bad track records is one thing, but your insistence on posting them all over this forum is unhelpful.

And your "inside" information was better?