NASA Looking To Break New Ground With Crew And Cargo Transport Request

spacedaily.com ^ | 01/25/06

[KevinDavis]

NASA's recent invitation to the private space industry to propose crew- and cargo-transport concepts marks the beginning of a new procurement era for the space agency, the official in charge of the pro ject told SpaceDaily.com.

As announced January 19, NASA will set aside up to $500 million to support the development of commercial space-transport concepts the agency might use to fly cargo and crews to the International Space Station after the space shuttle fleet's retirement and before the onset of the new crew exploration vehicle. That effort also might jumpstart the commercial space industry.

"Come 2010 or so, we would like to have alternatives in place," said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the Commercial Crew/Cargo Project.

[KevinDavis]

[Squawk 8888]

I think "break ground" is a very unfortunate choice of words when referring to an aircraft.

[narby]

They'll screw it up with unreasonable requirements. The shuttle is a huge beast, because they demanded that the same vehicle transport crews and large cargos. They should have kept the Saturn V for large structures, and designed an air launched smaller vehicle for crew and re-supply. Such things were on the drawing boards in the 60's, but the shuttle overshadowed them.

[tet68]

I daresay you give Dick Rutan $ 500,000,000 dollars
and he could come up with a vehicle in half the time.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Wow, $500MM for 'concepts'.

[Hawk1976]

Why don't they just surf the internet, they could get a ton of concepts, some of them actually good, for free.

[orionblamblam]

No, $500M to *develop* concepts. That means more than jsut paper studies. How much more... shrug.

[Bean Counter]

"I daresay you give Dick Rutan $ 500,000,000 dollars
and he could come up with a vehicle in half the time."

BINGO!

[anymouse]

It might be better spent giving it to Burt Rutan, Dick's innovative design engineer brother instead. Dick is the pilot of some of Burt's amazing creations like the Voyager around-the-World aircraft.

[IrishCatholic]

I hope we figure it out soon. Russia has announced they plan a permanent base on the moon and will begin mining by 2010. Saw that on spacedaily.com today. Why are we futzing around? I don't want to look up and see the first lights on the moon to be communist (Ok, I know, but Putin is communist light)
And to those that think the Russians couldn't do it, they seem to have reliable lift capabilities and we are hitching rides.