Commercial Crew Program
The Commercial Crew Program ( CCP ) is a space program of the US space agency NASA . It was created in the early 2010s to provide the USA with its own manned space access again after the space shuttle flights were discontinued . As part of the program Commercial Crew Development ( CCDev ) NASA supported several companies in the development of privately operated spaceships with which low earth orbits and in particular the International Space Station(ISS) are to be flown to. This resulted in the spaceships Crew Dragon from SpaceX and CST-100 Starliner from Boeing .
Development contracts
course
The CCDev program is the responsibility of the NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO). Within the CCDev program, NASA concluded contracts with various companies to develop technologies and systems for manned spaceflight. For this purpose, in 2010 (CCDev1), a total of 50 million US dollars was paid out to five US companies for the first time to support the research and development of concepts and technologies. Originally, the program was supposed to be worth $ 150 million.
In 2011 (CCDev2) a total of $ 270 million was awarded. The largest item went to Boeing to develop the CST-100 Starliner into a test-ready space capsule. The Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) got support for the Dream Chaser and SpaceX for the development of the Dragon-2 spacecraft . In addition, Blue Origin received support for a concept of a bi- conical vehicle that is to be launched initially on a conventional rocket and later on a reusable booster system.
The third round of funding (CCiCap) was decided in August 2012. With Boeing (CST-100), SpaceX (Dragon) and Sierra Nevada Corp. (Dream Chaser) three companies have now been funded.
The first phase of certification (CPC) funding was published in November 2012. Companies should discuss safety and performance issues with NASA and develop common standards. This was funded with a total of 30 million US dollars.
In the, for the time being, last round and the second phase of certification, Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap), orders worth USD 6.8 billion for the actual transport systems were awarded in September 2014. Only Boeing and SpaceX were considered. SNC, which had submitted a cheaper offer than Boeing, appealed unsuccessfully to the award of the contract to Boeing and SpaceX. In the parallel CRS program, an unmanned version of the Dream Chaser was later awarded the contract to undertake cargo flights to the ISS from 2021.
Grants
Commercial Crew Development Round 1 (CCDev1)
- Blue Origin - Received $ 3.7 million to develop the New Shepard Space Capsule's integrated rescue system
- Boeing - Received $ 18 million to develop the CST-100 space capsule
- Paragon Space Development Corporation - received $ 1.4 million for life support system development
- Sierra Nevada Corporation - Received $ 20 million to further develop the Dream Chaser
- United Launch Alliance - Received $ 6.7 million to further develop its Emergency Detection System (= EDS) to improve the safety of the Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles.
Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2)
- Blue Origin - $ 22 million, later canceled
- Boeing - $ 92.3 million and then another $ 20.6 million
- Sierra Nevada Corporation - $ 80 million and later an additional $ 25.6 million
- SpaceX - $ 75 million to develop the Dragon V2 spacecraft
Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap)
- Boeing - $ 460 million
- Sierra Nevada Corporation - $ 212.5 million
- SpaceX - $ 440 million
- Later there was another $ 20 million for Boeing, $ 20 million for SpaceX, and $ 15 million for Sierra Nevada Corporation for reaching optional, but pre-agreed, milestones.
Certification Products Contracts (CPC)
- Boeing - $ 9.993 million
- Sierra Nevada Corporation - $ 10 million
- SpaceX - $ 9.589 million
Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap)
- Boeing - $ 4.2 billion
- SpaceX - $ 2.6 billion
commitment
Take-off and landing areas
All missions of the Commercial Crew Program start from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (future Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ) in Florida . This spaceport was also the starting point for all previous manned US space flights. After their return, the SpaceX spaceships hit the Atlantic off the coast of Florida, while the CST-100 Starliner lands in a desert in the southwestern United States.
Test flights
Four test flights to the ISS are planned - one unmanned flight per provider ( SpX-DM1 and Boe-OFT ) and one manned flight ( SpX-DM2 and Boe-CFT ). According to the original plan, these should take place in 2017 at the latest, but postponed until 2019-2020 due to problems in the development of both spaceships.
Before that, both spaceships completed a pad abort test , with which the rescue system was tested. The SpaceX test in May 2015 went according to plan; In the Boeing test in November 2019, on the other hand, only two out of three parachutes unfolded because a retaining bolt was not properly attached. SpaceX also successfully carried out an in-flight abort test of the rescue system in January 2020 . Boeing waived this test and instead tries to demonstrate the full functionality of the rescue system with computer simulations.
The first flight to the ISS took place in March 2019 with the unmanned SpX-DM1 mission and was rated as a success. In contrast, several software problems occurred during the Boeing Boe-OFT mission in December 2019 . Manual intervention by the mission control center prevented the spaceship from being lost, but it was no longer possible to approach the ISS. The mission will therefore be repeated .
The first manned test flight was successfully carried out on May 30, 2020 as part of the SpaceX SpX-DM2 mission.
Regular feeder flights
After completion of the test phase, each of the two types of spaceship will fly to the ISS once a year. The US would take over half of the ISS feeder flights. In alternation, two Russian Soyuz spaceships will continue to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome every year .
Mission List
As of July 28, 2020
| No. | Surname | Start date | Spaceship | Launcher | Landing date | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SpX-DM1 | 2nd March 2019 | Crew Dragon | Falcon 9 | March 8, 2019 | unmanned test flight |
| 2 | Boe-OFT | Dec 20, 2019 | Starliner | Atlas V | Dec 22, 2019 | unmanned test flight; ISS not reached, mission canceled prematurely |
| 3 | SpX-DM2 | May 31, 2020 | Crew Dragon | Falcon 9 | Aug 2, 2020 | Crew: Douglas Hurley , Robert Behnken |
| Planned missions (selection) | ||||||
| SpaceX Crew-1 | End of October 2020 | Crew Dragon | Falcon 9 | approx. Feb. 2021 | Crew: Michael Hopkins , Victor Glover , Shannon Walker , Sōichi Noguchi | |
| Boe OFT repeat | around December 2020 | Starliner | Atlas V | Repetition of the unmanned Boe OFT mission, duration approx. 7 days | ||
| SpaceX Crew-2 | Spring 2021 | Crew Dragon | Falcon 9 | Crew: Shane Kimbrough , Megan McArthur , Akihiko Hoshide , Thomas Pesquet | ||
| Boe-CFT | June 2021 | Starliner | Atlas V | Crew: Chris Ferguson , Michael Fincke , Nicole Mann | ||
See also
- Commercial Orbital Transportation Services , completed NASA program for the provision of cargo flights to the ISS
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Almost 270 million in CCDev round 2. Raumfahrer.net, April 19, 2011, accessed on July 2, 2013 .
- ↑ US crew transport: Boeing, SpaceX and SNC selected. Raumfahrer.net, August 3, 2012, accessed July 2, 2013 .
- ↑ Laura Keeney: Sierra Nevada protests to GAO over loss of NASA space-taxi contract. In: Denver Post. September 26, 2014, accessed January 18, 2020 (updated April 27, 2016).
- ↑ Commercial Crew: Development continues! Raumfahrer.net, October 29, 2014, accessed on January 18, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e Commercial Crew Program - The Essentials. NASA, accessed February 7, 2016 .
- ↑ Elon Musk: Crew Dragon spacecraft for NASA could fly astronauts in 3 to 4 months . CNN Business, October 1, 2019.
- ↑ Missing pin blamed for Boeing pad abort parachute anomaly . Spacenews, November 7, 2019.
- ↑ Demo-1 Post-Splashdown Remarks from Steve Stich. In: NASA Blog. NASA, March 8, 2019, accessed March 8, 2019 .
- ↑ NASA Shares Initial Findings from Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test Investigation . NASA, February 7, 2020.
- ↑ Starliner investigation finds numerous problems in Boeing software development process . Spacenews, February 7, 2020.
- ↑ a b NASA: Boeing's Starliner Makes Progress Ahead of Flight Test with Astronauts. August 28, 2020, accessed on August 29, 2020 (English): "After a successful OFT-2, Boeing and NASA will fly Starliner's first crewed mission, the Crew Flight Test, currently targeted for no earlier than June 2021, with the first post-certification mission, called Starliner-1, tentatively scheduled for no earlier than late December 2021. The CFT crew members are Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson and NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann. "