COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Boeing [BA] is open to using rival launch vehicles for its Cargo Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) offering for NASA, including rockets supplied by international companies.
Boeing Vice President and General Manager of Space Exploration John Elbon said Wednesday the company did respond to NASA’s CRS-2 request for proposal, which could be worth as much as $14 billion with all options exercised. Elbon said Boeing would use one of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicles in the near term, but, ultimately, the company is open to using other companies’ launch vehicles. ULA is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin [LMT].
“Since the beginning, we’ve said our vehicle is launch vehicle agnostic,” Elbon told a small group of reporters here at the National Space Symposium (NSS).
Elbon said it would take “more than a day” to integrate its CST-100 space capsule onto other launch vehicles, but the company would do the work. He mentioned ULA’s Delta IV as a possible launch vehicle as well as Space Exploration Technology Corp.‘s (SpaceX) Falcon 9. Elbon also said Boeing would work with ULA as it evolves its Vulcan next generation launch system, which was unveiled here Monday.
Although Elbon said “we haven’t gained much traction from it,” he did say an Arianespace vehicle, likely the next-generation Ariane 6, and a Japanese H-II rocket were possible candidates. Arianespace is a French-based multinational company. According to the JAXA Japanese civil space agency, the H-II has the capability to launch a two-ton class satellite into geostationary orbit. The International Space Station (ISS), the destination for CRS missions, is in low-earth orbit (LEO). JAXA also said H-II was developed with all Japanese technology.
Boeing spokesman Kelly Kaplan said Wednesday submitted its CRS-2 proposal based on Atlas V, but if it decided to look at other launch vehicles, it would procure them through a separate RFP.
Boeing, Elbon said, has had “very, very” preliminary discussions with ULA about using its Vulcan launch system. Elbon said the Vulcan would have the same performance characteristics as the Atlas V.
Elbon said Boeing’s first CRS-2 flight would most likely take place in early 2018, after the company’s first launch as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program to deliver astronauts to ISS. Before Boeing peforms a crewed mission, it must do an uncrewed mission as a test run. Elbon said this would be like performing a CRS mission, but he also said it was not in Boeing’s baseline to carry cargo on that uncrewed flight. NASA wants CRS-2 missions to start in 2018.
Boeing might not even dock with ISS on that uncrewed test run because the launch vehicle has to be certified for docking. He said Boeing may, instead, launch to the vicinity of ISS and say outside the “keep-out zone.”
“We’re still sorting out whether that (uncrewed) flight would even dock with (ISS),” Elbon said. “We’re studying whether that makes sense.”
SpaceX and Lockheed Martin have also submitted bids for CRS-2. SpaceX and Orbital ATK [OA] are incumbents from CRS-1, which is currently ongoing. CRS-2 proposals were due Dec. 2 and NASA anticipates a contract award in June.
According to the draft RFP, though the first CRS-2 mission does not have to be launched in 2017, ISS does have a requirement for CRS missions in 2017 that must be satisfied. Thus, an offeror that is able to provide services to meet the program requirements beginning in 2017 would be more advantageous to NASA (Defense Daily, March 18).
A Boeing spokesman did not respond to additional requests for comment.