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Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has established the Commercial Crew/Cargo Project Office at the Johnson Space Center as part of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. The objectives of the Commercial Crew/Cargo Project are to:

• implement U.S. Space Exploration policy with an investment to stimulate commercial enterprises in space,
• facilitate U.S. private industry demonstration of cargo and crew space transportation capabilities with the goal of achieving reliable, cost effective access to low-Earth orbit, and
• create a market environment in which commercial space transportation services are available to Government and private sector customers.

The January 2006 announcement solicited proposals for the initial development and demonstration phase of the Commercial Crew/Cargo Project. Under this project, NASA intends to enter into agreements with private industry to develop and demonstrate the vehicles, systems, and operations needed to resupply, return cargo from, and transport crew to and from a human space facility, with the International Space Station providing the representative requirements for such a facility.

Once demonstrated, industry will be able to provide these new services to non-NASA customers. NASA also plans to enter the next phase of the Commercial Crew/Cargo Project and purchase services from commercial providers to support the International Space Station. In the future, NASA intends to extend its use of commercial space services to other NASA needs, such as in-space fuel delivery to support human exploration missions beyond the space station.

COTS is envisioned to be executed in two phases:

• Phase 1 – A period of development and demonstration by private industry, in coordination with NASA, of various space transportation capabilities to and from low-Earth orbit (LEO) determined to be most desirable for the Government and other customers.
• Phase 2 – A potential competitive procurement of orbital transportation services to resupply the ISS with cargo and crew, if a capability is successfully demonstrated and the Government determines it is in its best interest.

The activities associated with the implementation of Phase 1, also referred to as COTS Demonstrations or COTS Demos, will be governed by this announcement and any resulting Space Act Agreement (SAA). NASA intended to use its Space Act authority to enter into at least one and preferably multiple funded agreements resulting from this announcement. The actual number of SAAs will be based upon the types of proposed capabilities selected to fit within the available funding.

Earth to orbit space flight demonstrations include the following capabilities:

• Capability A: External cargo delivery and disposal. Capability A delivers cargo (payloads) that operate directly in the space environment to a LEO test bed and safely disposes cargo.
• Capability B: Internal cargo delivery and disposal. Capability B delivers cargo (payloads) that operate within a volume maintained at normal atmospheric pressure to a LEO test bed and safely disposes cargo.
• Capability C: Internal cargo delivery and return. Capability C delivers cargo (payloads) that operate within a volume maintained at normal atmospheric pressure to a LEO test bed and safely returns cargo.
• Capability D: Crew transportation. Capability D delivers crew to a LEO test bed and safely returns crew.

The scope of the demonstrations involves the development and operation of an end-to-end space transportation system of services including ground operations and integration, launch, rendezvous, proximity operations, docking or berthing, orbital operations, reentry, and safe disposal or return. The demonstrations will culminate with a crew/cargo transportation mission to and from a LEO test bed for the orbital phase of the mission. NASA intends to provide the ISS as the orbital destination and active test bed if the ISS visiting vehicle requirements are satisfied. Participants may propose an alternative orbital test bed for the capability demonstrations.

Proposals are solicited for crew transportation Capability D, but only as an option to proposals for Capability C. The Capability D demonstrations will consist of multiple missions to LEO and the orbital test bed. The option will be considered for execution only after the successful demonstration of Capability C. Participants are not precluded from incorporating crew transportation technical performance goals in the proposals for Capability C.

Participants may propose a system solution targeting any of the capabilities individually or propose a system that satisfies multiple capabilities. NASA prefers to award multiple agreements for demonstrations covering all capabilities; however, due to funding limitations this may not be possible.

Payments will be made upon the successful completion of performance milestones as proposed by the participants and negotiated with NASA. NASA’s contribution will be a fixed amount and will not be increased based on the participant’s ability to obtain private funding. A startup milestone payment will be considered.

Capability A, B and/or C projects will commence upon the execution of the SAA targeted for June 2006 and will end after the successful flight demonstration of the selected capability expected to occur in the 2008-2010 timeframe. Capability D option is planned to commence upon the successful demonstration of Capability C and will extend for the length of time proposed and negotiated to complete the demonstration objectives. The execution of this optional period may be contingent upon additional NASA funding availability.

On 18 August 2006 NASA selected SpaceX, El Segundo, Calif. and Rocketplane-Kistler, Oklahoma City, to develop and demonstrate commercial orbital transportation services that could open new markets and pave the way for contracts to launch and deliver crew and cargo to the International Space Station. NASA and the two companies signed Space Act Agreements that establish milestones and objective criteria to assess their progress throughout Phase 1 of the competition. Once a capability is demonstrated, NASA plans to purchase crew and cargo delivery services competitively in Phase 2. “These companies were selected from a total of 20 applicants, based on solid engineering of innovative concepts and sound business plans,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office at the Johnson Space Center, Houston.