A private
spaceflight firm is developing a new unmanned spacecraft in hopes of delivering
cargo for NASA missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
The
Chicago-based company PlanetSpace, Inc. is working with veteran aerospace firms
to build the Modular Cargo Carrier, an automated supply ship vying for funding
under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.
"We're
very comfortable and confident that NASA is going to have a low-cost, very
reliable cargo and crew transport to the space station," PlanetSpace
chairman Chirinjeev Kathuria told SPACE.com.
PlanetSpace
teamed up with Lockheed Martin Space Systems to develop the orbital Modular
Cargo Carrier, with experienced rocket builder Alliant Techsystems (ATK) on board
to build the vehicle's booster. The firm, which is also developing a separate
space tourism and suborbital
transportation vehicle, is building on an unfunded Space Act agreement with
NASA that set out the requirements for its COTS bid.
NASA's COTS
program is aimed at spurring the development of commercial cargo and crew
launch services as the agency prepares to retire its three aging space shuttles
by September 2010.
While the
space agency is developing its own shuttle successor, the capsule-based Orion
Crew Exploration Vehicle to be built by Lockheed Martin, it is also
considering purchasing commercial launch services during the gap between the orbiter
fleet's retirement and the first operational Orion flights in 2014.
PlanetSpace
and other private firms are vying for about $175 million in COTS seed money to
develop and demonstrate their own cargo-hauling spacecraft by 2010.
"From
what we looked at in our experience base, that's something that's very
achievable," said Al Simpson, director of advanced programs for human
spaceflight at Lockheed.
The Modular
Cargo Carrier is currently designed to dock at the ISS using via a common
berthing port used to attach station modules and visiting NASA cargo pods,
Simpson said.
The
available COTS funds were initially part of a $500 million NASA award to California's
Space
Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Oklahoma-based Rocketplane Kistler.
When Rocketplane Kistler failed
to meet key milestones earlier this year, NASA opted to re-compete that
firm's allocation with a decision slated for February 2008.
In addition
to PlanetSpace, the Houston-based firm SPACEHAB also announced intentions this
week to compete for the COTS award using its ARCTUS spacecraft, which is
currently envisioned to launch atop the expendable Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets
operated by the United Launch Alliance.
If
PlanetSpace secures the COTS funds, the firm plans to launch its first Modular
Cargo Carrier demonstration flight from an established pad in Cape Canaveral,
Fla., by the end of 2010, though the company will retain its previous plans to
launch homegrown spacecraft from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia.
Kathuria
said the Modular Cargo Carrier is being developed separately from PlanetSpace's
planned Silver Dart spacecraft, a reusable space plane based on the U.S. Air
Force's Flight Dynamics Laboratory-7 (FDL-7) that is designed to fly cargo or up
to eight astronauts through suborbital space for joy rides or point-to-point transportation
on Earth.
"We're
continuing down that development very strongly in terms of developing the FDL-7
for what we call cargo express or space tourism," Kathuria said. "That's
the commercial part of our business."
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