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Testimony of Eric W. Stallmer President, Commercial Spaceflight

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Testimony of Eric W. Stallmer President, Commercial Spaceflight Testimony of Eric W. Stallmer President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Science, Space, and Competitiveness February 24, 2015 Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Udall, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for holding this hearing and for providing me the opportunity to testify as President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is the industry association of leading businesses and organizations working to make commercial spaceflight a reality. Our mission is to promote the development of commercial spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety and reliability, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. I hope to provide three main take-aways from my testimony today providing insight on the sector’s past, it’s present, and how lessons learned from these eras can be applied to the future for the growth of America’s space program. First, NASA and the commercial sector are partners in America’s “great national enterprise” in space. Since the dawn of the space program, the partnership between government and the private sector has been a testament to our accomplishments in space. The partnerships early in the U.S.’ space program were different than the partnerships we see and encourage today, but this is owed to the evolution of our nation’s space program and the continued evolvement from both parties. Later in my testimony, I will discuss successful commercial partnerships and how these can be applied to our nation’s space exploration goals moving forward. Second, further expansion beyond the government will create an ecosystem that will make space ours, and will enhance and strengthen U.S. leadership in space. Many of CSF’s member companies are working to push Earth’s economic sphere outward from Low-Earth orbit and beyond. Suborbital platforms will provide an avenue for space tourism and research that could not be conceived otherwise. Orbital vehicles will increase utilization of the International Space Station (ISS) for industry and research institutions in addition to increasing destinations in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Beyond LEO activities span the spectrum from mining celestial bodies for resources valuable to Earth to habitats on the Moon. All of these activities and more are creating a market in space that will continue to grow. Finally, policies must be in place to encourage growth and innovation in the industry and keep the U.S. space sector competitive. Tools such as contracts using Other Transaction Authority (OTA) can continue this trending growth. The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (CSLA) and export control are other policy areas ripe for reform that will shape the advancement for the industry. Later in my testimony, I will discuss how Congress and industry can work together on these important policies to encourage progress and not hinder it. Public-Private Partnerships The Federal government and the commercial space sector have worked together in various capacities since the beginning of America’s space exploration program. From Mercury through Apollo, NASA’s success in the space race was not without the help of commercial companies such as Bell, North American Aviation, and what was then known as the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. This era saw collaboration with industry in which NASA engineers would design the systems and competitively bid out portions of the project. While this proved to be a successful method for developing specially-designed, fully government systems, more modern and innovative approaches have become available to procure a wide variety of necessary capabilities and services. Commercial procurement now allows the government to assume the role of customer while still being involved in the development of the system. The government benefits from no longer the sole customer; its role changes from top-down control to capitalizing on development of commercially-owned capabilities. The government also benefits from the firm, fixed-price and milestone based approach utilized in commercial contracts, which controls cost and drives efficiencies. This approach allows NASA and the commercial sector to become true partners in America’s “great national enterprise” in space. It enables the public and the private sector to collectively advance our nation’s reach into the cosmos. Suborbital The NASA-commercial partnership starts in the shallower waters of space, in the suborbital realm. Initiatives such as NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program (FOP) use commercial reusable vehicles for technology development that will allow and enable future missions to new destinations, keeping the U.S. at the forefront of exploration technology. In addition to robustly testing new technologies, these platforms offer brief access to the space environment for scientific data collection. Many researchers see them as stepping stones to using the International Space Station (ISS), increasing its utilization and raising its commercial success. Made In Space, a company based out of Silicon Valley, used FOP to test its 3D printers operation in microgravity for a fraction of the price of an orbital mission. After testing and building confidence on Earth, the company sent one of its printers to the ISS where it is currently operating. To date, the company has printed 14 objects from a calibration coupon to a ratchet. This perfectly exemplifies the success of a public-private partnership developing technology for future exploration, where astronauts could create a spare parts to support ambitious new missions. Low-Earth Orbit The ISS has been described as the crown jewel of the United States space exploration enterprise; it is a platform to perform a wide variety of experiments focused on life and physical sciences, human research, exploration research, and technology development. Almost a decade ago, in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, Congress codified a new agreement between NASA and the U.S. commercial space industry to better achieve the nation’s space exploration goals together. Congress designated the U.S. segment of the International Space Station a national laboratory, no longer the sole domain of NASA, but rather a shared resource to be utilized by both the Federal government and private industry. An excellent example of the ISS being used in this fashion is the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (“BEAM”), which will be launched and attached to the ISS later this year. Bigelow Aerospace has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in bringing expandable habitat technology to fruition, and, in partnership with NASA, the ISS will be utilized as a platform to demonstrate this vital new technology. Additionally, in anticipation of the Space Shuttle’s retirement, Congress directed NASA to partner with the commercial space industry to develop cargo transportation capabilities to the International Space Station. To that end, NASA created the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program to stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop safe, reliable, and cost- effective transportation capabilities to the ISS and LEO. COTS competitively funded two commercial companies--SpaceX and Orbital ATK--through cost-sharing, milestone- based, Space Act Agreements to help develop these capabilities. The program tied payments to the successful completion of contractually agreed upon milestones, and incentivized companies to contribute a significant amount of their own funds towards development. Following up on the success of the COTS program, NASA entered into a separate set of FAR-based, firm, fixed-price contracts with the companies to supply a series of cargo missions to the ISS through at least 2016. As of last month, 8 resupply missions have successfully been completed, with 12 more to come. The pioneering COTS and CRS partnership has benefited American human spaceflight efforts in several ways, including: 1. Providing timely critical supplies to ISS crew members; 2. Increasing the utilization of the ISS for research experiments and technology development, including the world’s only capability to return ISS science to Earth; 3. Developing affordable, fixed-cost domestic access to the ISS from multiple competing providers; and 4. Dissimilar redundancy to assure continued critical access through the life of the program. A variation of this model is being applied in the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is developing nationally-needed safe and reliable astronaut access to and from LEO. At present, NASA is paying more than $70 million per seat to fly our astronauts to the ISS on Russian Soyuz vehicles. That price increases annually with no increase in safety or reliability. Commercial Crew will allow NASA greater insight into the development and production of the vehicles than is currently available with the Soyuz. U.S. providers are also more affordable than the Russians. NASA contracted with SpaceX and Boeing under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, a firm, fixed-price milestone based FAR contract. SpaceX will be utilizing its all-American Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, while Boeing is employing its CST-100 capsule and the Atlas V rocket; each can carry up to seven people. These transportation systems will also allow NASA to expand the ISS’ crew size to its planned seven persons, roughly doubling U.S. crew time for utilization. This will allow much more scientific research and technology development activities to
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