NASA Taps SpaceX, Rocketplane Kistler for Space Cargo Demonstration

News
By Brian Berger
published

Artist's concept of SpaceX's Falcon 9 laubch vehicle & Dragon crew & Cargo capsules.
An artist's concept of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle and Dragon crew and cargo capsules. (Image credit: NASA)

WASHINGTON-- NASA has selected SpaceExploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of El Segundo, Calif., andRocketplane Kistler of Oklahoma City, Okla., to share $500 million the U.S.space agency intends to spend through 2010 to simulate development of new cargodelivery services to the International Space Station.

NASA madethe awards under the CommercialOrbital TransportationServices (COTS) demonstration program.

SpaceX and RocketplaneKistler beat out four other finalists for the awards: Andrews Space ofSeattle, Spacehab of Houston, SpaceDev of Poway Calif., and TransformationalSpace Corp. of Reston, Va.

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Brian Berger
Editor-in-Chief, SpaceNews

Brian Berger is the Editor-in-Chief of SpaceNews, a bi-weekly space industry news magazine, and SpaceNews.com. He joined SpaceNews covering NASA in 1998 and was named Senior Staff Writer in 2004 before becoming Deputy Editor in 2008. Brian's reporting on NASA's 2003 Columbia space shuttle accident and received the Communications Award from the National Space Club Huntsville Chapter in 2019. Brian received a bachelor's degree in magazine production and editing from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.