10 26 NASA Gerstenmaier Testimonyx
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HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL PRESENTED BY WITNESS October 26, 2011 Statement of William Gerstenmaier Associate Administrator, Human Exploration and Operations National Aeronautics and Space Administration before the Committee on Science, Space and Technology U. S. House of Representatives Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss NASA’s efforts to support the development of commercial crew transportation systems. We are pleased with the progress our industry partners have made in this new and innovative approach to human spaceflight development. Their success is critical to ensuring that we re-establish an American capability to transport U.S. astronauts – and their cargo – to the International Space Station (ISS), and quickly end the outsourcing of this work to foreign governments. And they need robust funding from NASA, to achieve timely success in this critical endeavor. Not only will the availability of one or more commercial crew transportation systems represent the emergence of a brand new domestic capability for carrying our astronauts to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the ISS, it will also enable the Agency to focus on developing its own systems for sending astronauts on missions of exploration beyond LEO. Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) NASA’s investments have been aimed at stimulating efforts within the private sector to develop and demonstrate human spaceflight capabilities through the CCDev initiative. Since 2009, NASA has conducted two CCDev rounds, soliciting proposals from U.S. industry participants to further advance commercial crew space transportation system concepts and mature the design and development of elements of the system, such as launch vehicles and spacecraft. In the first round of CCDev, NASA awarded five funded Space Act Agreements (SAAs) in February 2010, which concluded in the first quarter of 2011. Awardees and the amounts of the awards were: Blue Origin, $3.7 million; the Boeing Company, $18 million; Paragon Space Development Corporation, $1.44 million; Sierra Nevada Corporation, $20 million; and United Launch Alliance, $6.7 million. Under these SAAs, companies received funding contingent upon completion of specified development milestones. All milestones were successfully accomplished by the CCDev industry partners. During the second CCDev competition, known as CCDev2, NASA awarded four funded SAAs that are currently being executed with the following industry partners: • Blue Origin’s work involves risk-reduction activities related to development of a crew transportation system comprised of a reusable biconic shaped Space Vehicle launched first on an Atlas V launch vehicle and then on Blue Origin’s own Reusable Booster System. The company is working to mature its Space Vehicle design through Systems Requirements Review (SRR), maturing the pusher escape system, and accelerating engine development for the Reusable 1 Booster System. As of September 30, 2011, Blue Origin had successfully completed five of ten milestones and NASA had provided $11.2 million of the $22 million planned for this effort. • The Boeing Company is maturing its commercial crew transportation system through Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and performing development tests. Boeing’s system concept is a capsule- based spacecraft reusable for up to ten missions that is compatible with multiple launch vehicles. Boeing’s effort will include launch abort engine fabrication and static test fire, landing air bag drop demonstration, wind tunnel testing, parachute drop tests, Service Module Propellant Tank Development Test, and Launch Vehicle Emergency Detection System/Avionics System Integration Facility Interface Simulation Test. As of September 30, 2011, Boeing had successfully completed five of fifteen milestones and NASA had provided $52.5 million of the $112.9 million planned for this effort milestones. • Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is maturing its commercial crew transportation system, the Dream Chaser, through PDR with some subsystems to Critical Design Review (CDR). The Dream Chaser is a reusable, piloted lifting body, derived from NASA’s HL-20 concept that will be launched on an Atlas V launch vehicle. SNC’s effort also includes fabrication of an atmospheric flight test vehicle, conducting analysis and risk mitigation, and conducting hardware testing. As of September 30, 2011, SNC had successfully completed four of thirteen milestones and NASA had provided $30 million of the $105.6 million planned for this effort. • SpaceX is maturing its flight-proven Falcon 9/Dragon transportation system focusing on developing an integrated, side-mounted Launch Abort System. The uncrewed version of Dragon is already being demonstrated as part of the Commercial Cargo project, and will be used operationally as part of the ISS cargo resupply services effort. Their crew transportation system is based on the existing Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft. The Launch Abort System, an essential safety-critical system, represents the longest-lead portion of the Falcon 9/Dragon crew transportation system. As of September 30, 2011, SpaceX had successfully completed four of ten milestones and NASA had provided $40 million of the $75 million planned for this effort. In addition to the four funded agreements mentioned above, NASA has also signed SAAs without funding with three companies: Alliant Techsystems, Inc. (ATK); United Launch Alliance (ULA); and Excalibur Almaz, Incorporated (EAI). The ATK agreement is to advance the company’s Liberty launch vehicle concept. The ULA agreement is to accelerate the potential use of the Atlas V as part of a commercial crew transportation system. The EAI agreement is to further develop the company’s concept for LEO crew transportation. As of September 30, 2011, ATK had successfully completed one of five milestones; ULA successfully completed two of five milestones. NASA and EAI are initiating activities under the SAA now, and milestones are planned to continue through May 2012. Commercial Crew Program (CCP) The CCP is a partnership between NASA and the private sector to incentivize companies to build and operate safe, reliable, and cost effective commercial human space transportation systems. In the near term, NASA plans to be a reliable partner with U.S. industry, providing technical and financial assistance during the development phase. In the longer term, NASA plans to be a customer for these services, buying transportation services for U.S. and U.S.-designated astronauts to the ISS. We hope that these activities will stimulate the development of a new industry that will be available to all potential customers, including the U.S. Government. 2 Success of the CCP would also end the outsourcing of space transportation to foreign providers. Together with the ca pabilities to explore deep space provided by the Space Launch System and the Orion Multi- Purpose Crew Vehicle, NASA is moving forward on a robust , comprehensive U.S. human spaceflight program. Reductions from the President’s FY 2012 requested funding level would affect our ability to successfully implement this program ‘s procurement strategy, and could leave us dependent on foreign transportation services for a longer period of time at a cost of approximately $480 million per year. The success of thi s program will ensure that U.S. companies will provide these services . Commercial Crew Program Acquisition Roadmap The CCP acquisition lifecycle is comprised of an overall hybrid structure that originated with the funded SAAs for subsystem, system and element design during the separate CCDev efforts, to be followed by a series of competitively awarded contracts for an integrated C rew Transportation System (CTS). NASA's review and analysis led to the development of a phased acquisition strategy incorpor ating separate, sequential, full and open competitions, tailored to meet the Program objectives throughout each phase of design, development, test, evaluation, certification , and ISS transportation services. A combination of funded agreements and contract s for separate phases was determined to be the ideal strategy to capitalize on the strengths of each in the appropriate lifecycle phase, while balancing technical, schedule and cost risks. Figure 1.0 illustrates the overall hybrid approach for the CCP acq uisition strategy. Figure 1 .0 – Commercial Crew Acquisition Roadmap 3 CCP’s acquisition approach focuses on reducing the risk and uncertainty of the development cycle and on the incentives provided through competition by separating the design and early development content (Phase 1) from the longer-term Development, Test, Evaluation, and Certification (DTEC) activities (Phase 2). This multi-phased approach provides a shorter period of performance for the Phase 1 contract, thereby limiting the potential financial risk involved in utilizing long periods of performance with multiple commercial partners. Separating the early design from the longer-term development also provides a phased approach to cost assessment and management. The separation between Phase 1 and Phase 2 is distinctly defined to finalize design requirements in Phase 1, prior to a financial commitment to invest in the required capital assets associated with development and testing. Additionally, the approach encourages competition among multiple companies at each stage, which results in lower costs for each lifecycle phase and allows for well-timed incorporation of lessons learned. On September 19, 2011, NASA released