CCDev-2 Finalists

[Calorspace]

Does anyone know when the details regarding awards is going to be unveiled?

[yg1968]

CCDev-2 should be awarded April 6th assuming that Congress passes a full year CR this week. Awards are expected to be for a total $270 million with at least 4 participants.  See this article:
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110404-ccdev2-awards-expected.html

See post above. However an anouncement is unlikely until a full year CR for FY 2011 is passed by Congress.

[Robotbeat]

CCDev-2 should be awarded April 6th assuming that Congress passes a full year CR this week. Awards are expected to be for a total $270 million with at least 4 participants.  See this article:
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110404-ccdev2-awards-expected.html

See post above. However an anouncement is unlikely until a full year CR for FY 2011 is passed by Congress.

So, we aren't going to see any announcements tomorrow? What's going on?

Oh, yay:
"
WASHINGTON — NASA expects to award roughly $270 million April 6 to multiple contractors seeking to refine designs for launchers and spacecraft that would transport astronauts to and from low Earth orbit on a commercial basis, according to government and industry sources.

The space agency is still awaiting congressional action on its 2011 budget request, which proposed spending $500 million on commercial crew initiatives this year. Absent a congressional appropriation in the current budget year, however, NASA announced in October that it expected to award just $200 million in its second round of Commercial Crew Development (CCDev 2) agreements this spring."

There is no one who is helped by Congress dragging its feet.

[yg1968]

The article could have been clearer but it's been stated in the past that the CCDev-2 awards would not be announced until the appropriation process for FY2011 was complete.

[yg1968]

From a Spacenews's tweet:

No #CCDEV 2 selections today; contractors now told to be on standby Thurs. afternoon for word from NASA. But don't hold your breath.

http://twitter.com/Berger_SN

[docmordrid]

OK - which will it be; FH with 4 strap-ons or the Falcon XX?

[A_M_Swallow]

OK - which will it be; FH with 4 strap-ons or the Falcon XX?

Did you post this in the right thread?

[docmordrid]

iPhone UI put it here.  It does strange things sometimes :p

[Patchouli]

Looking at the issues with Soyuz I think we need to fast track CCDev-2

Spacex had already flown their capsule and SNC and Boeing have tested parts of their LAS.

SNC and Spacex seem to be offering the best price and most features.

I'd also would want to purposely go with two very different configurations as winners for reasons of technology development and flexibility.

A capsule seems best for the long visits and life boat use while a space plane seems better for ferry work and launch on demand rescues.

[Robotbeat]

Looking at the issues with Soyuz I think we need to fast track CCDev-2

Spacex had already flown their capsule and SNC and Boeing have tested parts of their LAS.

SNC and Spacex seem to be offering the best price and most features.

CST-100 has already demonstrated its escape motors.

[Patchouli]

Looking at the issues with Soyuz I think we need to fast track CCDev-2

Spacex had already flown their capsule and SNC and Boeing have tested parts of their LAS.

SNC and Spacex seem to be offering the best price and most features.

CST-100 has already demonstrated its escape motors.

So has SNC.
http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/blogs/posts/view/82105/

[Space Pete]

Word is that the CCDev-2 announcement has been delayed indefinitely due to the ongoing CR/2011 budget/government shutdown situation.

[Namechange User]

Word is that the CCDev-2 announcement has been delayed indefinitely due to the ongoing CR/2011 budget/government shutdown situation.

No doubt.  I'm not sure why people actually expected anything today.  Status quo with the limbo!

[Lurker Steve]

To do it in 3, NASA would have to throw gigabucks at the projects, effectively assuming all the risk, and embedding a high-cost structure.  That defeats the purpose of CCDEV.

Musk stated the can do it for one gigabuck (1B$).

But really, what is the difference between paying something over 3 years instead of 5, if it is the same amount of money?

If Musk can do it for $1GB, then what's holding him back, other than NASA funding ? NASA has already found ways to pass him $128M over and above the original COTS contract, and his schedule is still slip-sliding to the right.

I would examine the performance of the vendors that participated in CC-Dev1, and reward everyone who completed their goals on-time with additional funding. SpaceX wasn't part of CC-Dev1, they shouldn't be part of CC-Dev2.

[ugordan]

If Musk can do it for $1GB, then what's holding him back, other than NASA funding ? NASA has already found ways to pass him $128M over and above the original COTS contract, and his schedule is still slip-sliding to the right.

The same can be said for OSC so why should NASA give away random money to SpaceX and not OSC instead? They are also in this game we call "commercial crew".

[yg1968]

Word is that the CCDev-2 announcement has been delayed indefinitely due to the ongoing CR/2011 budget/government shutdown situation.

Yes, see here:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/06/6420552-nasa-mulls-commercial-space-plan

Update for 11 a.m. ET April 7: The CCDev2 announcement has been delayed indefinitely, apparently because of the continuing back-and-forth over the federal budget, according to John Elbon, vice president and program manager for commercial crew programs at the Boeing Co.

[Lurker Steve]

If Musk can do it for $1GB, then what's holding him back, other than NASA funding ? NASA has already found ways to pass him $128M over and above the original COTS contract, and his schedule is still slip-sliding to the right.

The same can be said for OSC so why should NASA give away random money to SpaceX and not OSC instead? They are also in this game we call "commercial crew".

I certainly didn't like sending either SpaceX or OSC additional development funding for COTS/CRS. It appears that NASA doesn't understand the concept of a fixed price contract. It certainly doesn't appear that the extra funding really helped to bring in the dates at all, did it ? Or could it be that without additional funding, these 2 vendors won't deliver until late 2012 ?

Then I read this glowing report about all of the success from the Constellation program.

http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/033011_charter_0.pdf

No wonder Congress wants to keep Constellation going. BTW, the first page of the report admits it's a Jobs program, designed to maintain our current capabilities.

Also remember that CC-Dev funding is coming out of the stimulus funds, so that is also a jobs program. In fact, CC-Dev participants are required to report the number of jobs created / saved in their quarterly progress reports.

[ugordan]

It certainly doesn't appear that the extra funding really helped to bring in the dates at all, did it ? Or could it be that without additional funding, these 2 vendors won't deliver until late 2012 ?

Then I read this glowing report about all of the success from the Constellation program.

Let me get this straight: you have a problem with COTS dates moving to the right but the Constellation program is one big parade of successes and on-time deliveries? Did you miss the fact Ares I also moved several years to the right?

http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/033011_charter_0.pdf

No wonder Congress wants to keep Constellation going.

I'll just link to Antonio Elias's succint comment on this: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15457.msg718927#msg718927

[Lurker Steve]

It certainly doesn't appear that the extra funding really helped to bring in the dates at all, did it ? Or could it be that without additional funding, these 2 vendors won't deliver until late 2012 ?

Then I read this glowing report about all of the success from the Constellation program.

Let me get this straight: you have a problem with COTS dates moving to the right but the Constellation program is one big parade of successes and on-time deliveries? Did you miss the fact Ares I also moved several years to the right?

http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/033011_charter_0.pdf

No wonder Congress wants to keep Constellation going.

I'll just link to Antonio Elias's succint comment on this: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15457.msg718927#msg718927

I don't really like Constellation. The SRBs are my least favorite part of the entire shuttle stack. I just would like to finish something, anything, sometime this decade. Go ahead and cancel constellation. Can we go back, pick up the pieces, and finish one of the X-33/X-34/OSP projects that was originally designed as a shuttle replacement instead, but was cancelled when "W" got his Vision ?

I only quoted that the link I found on the Orbital page, because I thought it might reflect some of the information that our congressmen are using to make decisions regarding the future direction of NASA. I don't think there are too many engineers in Congress. They can only make decisions based on what others have told them.

[Ronsmytheiii]

Word is that the CCDev-2 announcement has been delayed indefinitely due to the ongoing CR/2011 budget/government shutdown situation.

Well the good news is that there is a CR with intent of dotting the I's and crossing the T's on the final fy 2011 bill.   The bad news is that is sounds like stimulus money has been eliminated (or so I understand)  how will this effect CCDev?