Posted on 01/30/2005 12:12:36 PM PST by BenLurkin
Northrop Grumman Corp. and The Boeing Co. have finalized an agreement to team together to compete for development of NASA's planned Crew Exploration Vehicle. The vehicle is envisioned as the central human space-transportation system within NASA's Project Constellation, a broader organization of human and robotic space systems required for exploration of the Moon and beyond.
Specific requirements for the CEV project will not be available until NASA makes its formal request for proposals in March. The agency will award contracts to teams to compete for the project in September, with a "fly-off" planned for 2008, said NASA spokesman Michael Braukus .
Other aerospace giants such as Lockheed Martin Co. and Orbital Sciences Corp. have expressed interest in the project. Eleven different companies were involved in a study last year for the program.
"We expect some of those people to team up for (the competition)," Braukus said.
The initial competition will be for technologies that may be applied to a future vehicle, not the vehicle itself.
Northrop Grumman and Boeing have facilities at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, although it is unknown at this point whether any work for this project will be in the Antelope Valley.
"It really is too early to tell," said Boeing spokeswoman Tanya Deason-Sharp.
Both companies said they will place efforts with their facilities best-suited to the work.
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base assisted in developing earlier space vehicles such as the space shuttle, but it is too soon to tell if it will play a role in developing or testing the CEV.
"We are eager to participate, but we are in a wait-and-see attitude at this point," said Rodger Romans, Dryden's deputy point of contact for exploration systems mission directorate .
NASA is focusing on industry for this project, not the agency's field centers. Competitors for the project may choose to use a center such as Dryden for its facilities or expertise, but it is up to industry to make that call, said Dryden spokesman Alan Brown.
"We are not out selling ourselves," Romans said. "There is no concerted effort on our part to sell or market ourselves outside of our normal business development efforts."
Space Ping
ping
Boeing ping:
If its not Boeing, I'm not going...
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