The CCiCAP Award (PRE- and Post-AWARD DISCUSSION) Thread

[QuantumG]

Apparently, SNC got a partial award, whereas Boeing and SpaceX got the full boat, per Alan Boyle.

If you read the thread before posting you'll notice Alan Boyle saying that he isn't saying that, Andy Pasztor did.

[Lars_J]

Apparently, SNC got a partial award, whereas Boeing and SpaceX got the full boat, per Alan Boyle.

...And others seem to indicate that SpaceX got the partial award, not SNC. But we will see who (if any) is right tomorrow morning.

And I look forward to seeing some splashy new images and information about the winning concepts as well.

[jongoff]

NASA obviously was just waiting for the results of the NSF poll.

Whew. Good thing I started that one then. Should've thought of that sooner. 

~Jon

[jongoff]

Liberty could have delivered combined crew AND significant cargo cheaper because a 2nd rocket wouldn't have needed to be flown for cargo. SpaceX was quoting $140m for just delivering crew which is not exactly cheap.

No, $140M for seven crew is very cheap.

I agree with both of you: NASA won't use all the seats, they'll fill the remaining space with cargo.

QG, I'm definitely with you on this. My bet is that for a manned Dragon flight you'll often see 4-5 astronauts and a decent amount of internal and/or cargo.

~Jon

[Hauerg]

KSL put up an article on its website with some quotes from ATK:

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=21535427&nid=148&title=atk-in-competition-for-500m-from-nasa&s_cid=featured-4

"If you total all the billions that have been spent into my system before I started, it's probably approaching $10 billion. So I've got a huge head start."

That's one screwed up metric for evaluating a "head start".

Yes,my thoughts exactly. And what a way to say that that you are the taxpayers best friend. Oops. He is yours, of course.

[jongoff]

NASA obviously was just waiting for the results of the NSF poll.

You mean NBC was waiting for the results of the poll

Thanks for the good idea for the poll, BTW.

~Jon

[MP99]

Technically the half award has just as much chances to obtain a crew services contract in 2014 as anybody else. I am not entirely sure but I believe that the partial award is only for the base period.  So NASA could decide to continue with the partial award and drop one of the full awards in 2014 during the optional CCiCap milestones phase.

NASA is under no obligation to select CCiCap winners for the follow-on (FAR) phase. Theoretically, they could select a team that hasn't even had unfunded work in CCDev or CCiCap, if they're persuaded they have the best chance of delivering a service.

cheers, Martin

[SebastianB]

I'm very excited if this 'scoop' turns out to be true. Not because it validates my prediction in the poll thread , but because it seems to put a real emphasis on the options that would minimize 'the gap'.

Well Lars, that is two of us, will the other 11 please step forward...

I am one of them!
I wasn't expecting to see this when I woke up in the morning (I'm in UTC+1). Just catching up with the latest events and when I saw this thread I first thought "OK, it's out" but as I read through the thread an saw Marc's comment I am now back to "Wait, this isn't over yet".

With all these "rumors turning into sources" I'm confused about what to believe and what to ignore. Although, some of the rumors seem to add up, with Jay Barbree claiming to know who the award winners are and with Marc's source's claim about the distribution of the awards. This seems to make sense. As I understand it, Andy Pasztor was reporting about the speculation of industry insiders and Alan Boyle, as he pointed out, just refered to that specultaion without making clear claims about the distribution of the awards.

In the end, there is still a question mark or two floating around and we will have to wait another six hours before anything can be said for sure.

At least as long as nobody comes up with another rumor

[kkattula]

NASA obviously was just waiting for the results of the NSF poll.

Whew. Good thing I started that one then. Should've thought of that sooner. 

~Jon

Quick Jon, start one on who'll win the Commercial Lunar Lander Development program.     Or Mars. YMMV.

[CapitalistOppressor]

I wonder if SpaceX even needs, or asked for, ~$400 million to finish development on the manned version of Dragon. 

It would make more sense to award SNC and Boeing the full award and SpaceX the partial.  Especially when you factor in Congressional porkbarrel politics. 

That likely results in two more test flights for ULA, while SpaceX gets enough money to finish man rating Dragon and their launch site, with enough left over to finance a test flight. Then NASA has two launch vehicles and three spacecraft for their development money.

In terms of merit, I'd give the full awards to SpaceX and Boeing and the partial to SNC.  I just doubt that SpaceX actually needs that much money.

[Hauerg]

I wonder if SpaceX even needs, or asked for, ~$400 million to finish development on the manned version of Dragon. 

It would make more sense to award SNC and Boeing the full award and SpaceX the partial.  Especially when you factor in Congressional porkbarrel politics. 

That likely results in two more test flights for ULA, while SpaceX gets enough money to finish man rating Dragon and their launch site, with enough left over to finance a test flight. Then NASA has two launch vehicles and three spacecraft for their development money.

In terms of merit, I'd give the full awards to SpaceX and Boeing and the partial to SNC.  I just doubt that SpaceX actually needs that much money.

Sorry, but if SpaceX does not need the money, then why even think of giving it to Boeing???

[Chris Bergin]

Two hours or so away from the announcement, although at this rate I fully expect to see Sepp Blatter on NTV.....and the winner is:

[psloss]

Need to get some sleep after less than three hours last night.

So you all better behave on here!

Maybe, you should change this to a CCiCap party thread just in case.

It would be easier to indicate which threads are non-party ones.

[Lars_J]

I wonder if SpaceX even needs, or asked for, ~$400 million to finish development on the manned version of Dragon.

What? ...

[robertross]

Two hours or so away from the announcement, although at this rate I fully expect to see Sepp Blatter on NTV.....and the winner is:

Too funny.
(and in a way, so right, so we're still relying on them until the other systems are proven)

[Chris Bergin]

Ok, this is now the pre- and post-award DISCUSSION thread.

A dedicated live thread for today's events (as updates) is located here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=29587.0

[kirghizstan]

this will be broadcast on nasa tv and the nasa ustream right?

[Chris Bergin]

Yep. Announcement in five mins. Presser one hour later on NTV.

[kirghizstan]

Yep. Announcement in five mins. Presser one hour later on NTV.

do they give the hour to allow the press to figure out questions to ask?

[wolfpack]

Once we officially know, can anyone in the loop say if the announced winners were always the winners, or did politics force a change over the course of the last two weeks?