LIVE: CCiCAP Commercial Crew Awards Announcements - August 3, 2012

[Rocket Science]

Correction to milestone dates end April/May 2014 on charts…

[manboy]

[Rocket Science]

Gerst: Can’t provide job numbers, said to ask companies…

[Rocket Science]

Optional milestones for SNC to get to CDR...

[Rocket Science]

ULA wants Human Rating for Atlas V as a kit format to each customer needs with a lot in common…

End...

[Norm Hartnett]

Whew, there was a lot of meat in that news conference.

Redacted SAA's should be avaliable by close of business today.

I have to say that my belief in NASA  and the Commercial Crew process has undergone a sea change. Well done to the entire NASA CC team.

[yg1968]

One of the more subtle points that was mentionned is whether they have decided to go ahead with the CCiCap optional milestones phase or not. My understanding from Phil McAlister's answer is that they have not yet decided if they will go ahead or not with the CCiCap optional milestones phase.  They said that they would have an industry day shortly to discuss how they want to do the contract phase.

In short, more lobbying will be necessary in order to maintain SAAs for test flights...

[yg1968]

Another point that was mentionned by Gerst is that the selection statement should be released in about a week or a week and a half.

[psloss]

Telecon audio attached...volume level is a little high to me, so be aware of that.

[Chris Bergin]

Excellent work guys. Managed to finish my article. Will be on in 30 mins.

[yg1968]

Telecon audio attached...volume level is a little high to me, so be aware of that.

Thanks! I was hoping that someone would record it. It was a very meaty conference call. Good to have all of it in a file as a reference.

[Prober]

My take of the Q&A (resulting before any spin is read)

1) two full shares Boeing  & SpaceX  ˝ to SNC
2) overall goal milestone is a test crew to ISS for Boeing & SpaceX
3) SNC is in the backup role for this program and its goals are different, and if successful more goals and funds might be added in the future
4) Boeing has very detailed 19 milestones reaching goal of test crew in 2016
5) SpaceX goals on paper say they can do a test crew in 2015; NASA feels however 2017 is closer.
6) Other unfunded SSA contracts are welcome and a review of the program will be done in 21 months.

[yg1968]

So it sounds like Blue Origin didn't even "bid" on CCiCAP. Did I hear that correctly?

I don't recall hearing Blue Origin either in the group of 7 companies that submitted a proposal.

I just listened to the begining of the audio file that Philipp just provided us and Blue Origin and Excalibur Almaz did not submit proposals. ATK made it as one of the four finalists as we already knew.

The other companies that submitted proposals but that were not finalists were:
-Space Operations and Company;
-American Aerospace;
-Space Design.

[Chris Bergin]

And the baseline article for this annoumcement.

Lots of specific articles to come.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/nasa-ccicap-funding-spacex-boeing-sncs-crew-vehicles/

[Lee Jay]

And the baseline article for this annoumcement.

Lots of specific articles to come.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/nasa-ccicap-funding-spacex-boeing-sncs-crew-vehicles/

I don't know how you throw those together so fast, and so well.  Great baseline.

[Robotbeat]

I really want to know what SpaceX is planning for a Max-Q test. Full Falcon 9? Just the first stage (dummy second)? Something like an old peacekeeper missile (doubtful)? Maybe even a modified Grasshopper or the prototype for their reusable Falcon 9 first stage? The last one is unlikely, but SpaceX does weird stuff sometimes.

[Chris Bergin]

And the baseline article for this annoumcement.

Lots of specific articles to come.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/nasa-ccicap-funding-spacex-boeing-sncs-crew-vehicles/

I don't know how you throw those together so fast, and so well.  Great baseline.

Thanks! Would have been a lot faster if my PC hadn't slowed down to a snail to get that massive Dream Chaser video on L2!

[Lars_J]

And the baseline article for this annoumcement.

Lots of specific articles to come.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/nasa-ccicap-funding-spacex-boeing-sncs-crew-vehicles/

Nice article!

I do find one thing curious, though - Why is 'Liberty' the first image in the article, even though it was not selected? 

[Chris Bergin]

And the baseline article for this annoumcement.

Lots of specific articles to come.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/nasa-ccicap-funding-spacex-boeing-sncs-crew-vehicles/

Nice article!

I do find one thing curious, though - Why is 'Liberty' the first image in the article, even though it was not selected? 

Thanks! The main body was about the winners. I covered the announcement and the loser first - although the first actual image is the lead image - thanks to Strangequark - and that was the three winners!

[Lee Jay]

And the baseline article for this annoumcement.

Lots of specific articles to come.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/nasa-ccicap-funding-spacex-boeing-sncs-crew-vehicles/

I don't know how you throw those together so fast, and so well.  Great baseline.

Thanks! Would have been a lot faster if my PC hadn't slowed down to a snail to get that massive Dream Chaser video on L2!

That's one of the best - if not the best - CGI I've seen on any of these vehicles.  So it was worth it!