Congressional stinginess with NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) budget is forcing the space agency to abandon a key goal of the effort: to obtain multiple, redundant access to low Earth orbit with price competition between providers.
According to the CCDev draft request for proposal released yesterday, NASA will ultimately select only one system to fund to completion:
The acquisition will be conducted as a two-phased procurement using a competitive down-selection technique between phases. In this technique, two or more contractors will be selected for Phase 1. It is expected that the single contractor for Phase 2 will be chosen from among these contractors after a competitive down-selection.
The space agency is currently funding four companies to build spacecraft: Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and SpaceX. The first three companies plan to use United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket to launch their spacecraft into orbit. SpaceX would use its own Falcon 9 booster. NASA’s goal had been to fund at least two fully integrated rocket-spacecraft systems to full completion.
The key issue appears to be funding: while the Obama Administration has proposed spending $850 million on CCDev in FY 2012, the Senate would provide $500 million while the House has proposed $312 million. Congress has been much more enthusiastic about funding the Space Launch System and Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle, which will receive around $3 billion next year.
The issue affects not only NASA but also private space station operators such as Bigelow Aerospace who want multiple options and competition in launching crews and cargo. Bigelow plans to launch two space stations into orbit by the end of the decade if commercial transport options become available. The company will need more than 20 launches per year of cargo and crew to support its facilities.