Anna Forrester
NASA and its industry partners Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceX together passed 23 milestones in the Commercial Crew Program in 2014 as they seek to develop crew space transportation systems.
NASA said Monday the program also included technical review sessions to ensure the reliability and safety of those systems, which would carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and other low-Earth orbit destinations.
“To say we’ve been busy would truly be an understatement,” said Kathy Lueders, Commercial Crew Program manager.
“Pad infrastructures, processing facilities, hardware and crew training mockups, which are all key elements crucial to flying crew safely in just a few years, will take a more cohesive shape next year.”
Blue Origin is currently working on the assembly of the subscale propellant tank under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 agreement and will move forward to testing the tank and BE-3 engine for the Space Vehicle spacecraft next year.
Boeing has completed two milestones under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract and is working to secure certification for the CST-100 spacecraft.
SNC has closed out the Certification Products Contract and will conduct a new free-flight for its Dream Chaser spacecraft.
SpaceX has passed Commercial Crew Integrated Capability milestones and closed out CPC and is preparing for Certification Baseline Review under CCtCap and Crew Dragon abort tests under CCiCap.
