Boeing To Bid on NASA Contract for Preparation of Cargo Headed to ISS

Space News ^ | 1/22/2010 | Amy Klamper

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Chicago-based Boeing Co., NASA’s prime contractor on the international space station (ISS), is looking to add payload processing of station-bound cargo to the work it does in support of the orbiting outpost. The company announced plans Jan. 18 to bid on a new NASA solicitation calling for physical preparation of cargo headed to the station aboard U.S. and foreign spacecraft beginning in January 2011, three months after the agency’s space shuttle fleet is due to retire.

NASA currently is counting on two U.S. companies — Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. and Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) — to complete work on competing rockets and cargo vessels in time to begin making supply runs to the space station early next year. According to the agency’s Cargo Mission Contract solicitation, released Jan. 15, NASA is looking for a contractor to physically prepare station-bound cargo for flight aboard a variety of cargo vehicles, including SpaceX’s Falcon 9-launched Dragon capsule and Orbital’s Taurus 2-launched Cygnus vehicle.

Orbital and SpaceX are developing their systems with a combined $450 million provided under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. In addition, SpaceX and Orbital were awarded a combined $3.5 billion in December 2008 to conduct a total of 20 cargo flights to the station through 2016.

In addition to Orbital and SpaceX, NASA will also rely on the Russian-owned Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, the European Automated Transfer Vehicle and the Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle to deliver cargo to the station, according to the Jan. 15 solicitation.