Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) goal of sending a non-NASA crew to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2015 is proceeding according to plan, according to a company executive.
“Our plan is to get to the point where we can fly to the ISS with a non-NASA crew by the end of 2015, that is, if we successfully execute all of our base period milestones and our optional period milestones on schedule,” SpaceX Commercial Crew Program Manager Garrett Reisman said Wednesday during a briefing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. “So far, we’re on schedule.”
SpaceX, along with Boeing [BA], Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC), and Blue Origin are participating in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) with the goal developing capabilities to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit for potential future government and commercial customers. SpaceX is adapting its Dragon cargo capsule for manned missions while SNC is developing a Dream Chaser plane similar to the space shuttle.
NASA said Wednesday in its annual Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) report it is making progress toward reestablishing U.S.-provided transportation to the ISS and low-Earth orbit by 2017, though the agency still needs to determine how to “intelligently and confidently” certify that commercial crew systems are safe for astronauts and personnel on NASA-sponsored missions.
Reisman said SpaceX is upgrading the Falcon 9 rocket with the goal of the rocket being able to carry crew into space. Reisman also said the company has a pad abort test review scheduled for March, an in-flight abort test review planned for September and a “flight-like, full-scale” pad abort test scheduled for December.
“We’re going to take a Dragon as flight like as possible, take it from our pad over at Cape Canaveral AFS and demonstrate our ability to get away from the Falcon 9 on the pad from zero altitude and zero air speed if we are having a bad day on the pad,” Reisman said.
Reisman also said SpaceX has an in-flight abort test scheduled for April 2014. NASA estimates a certification contract award for 2014.
NASA so far has doled out nearly $1.5 billion in contracts over four phases for the commercial crew program. The agency in August awarded $1.1 billion in contracts to Boeing, SpaceX and SNC for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase, the third phase, of the program (Defense Daily, Aug. 6). For the second phase, called Commercial Crew Development-2 (CCDev-2), NASA awarded contracts in 2011 to the three companies along Blue Origin (Defense Daily, April 20, 2011).