14 DAY TRIAL // Bad luck just seems to stay on NASA's tail. It now looks like the scheduled retirement of its space shuttle will leave the international community with a rather big dilemma. With the space shuttles gone, there would be no reusable vehicle capable of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station, since its own Orion spacecraft and the rocket used to launch it into space, the Ares I, currently in development, are thought to become operational only by 2015.
Thus, in the meantime, the U.S. space agency will have to make an appeal for a partnership with a series of commercial rocket manufacturers, more due to the termination of the previous partnership between NASA and the Rocketplane Kistler aerospace company. Less than two years ago, NASA signed a contract stipulating that agreements earmarking 485 million dollars would be split between two separate companies that were developing orbital vehicles, SpaceX and the Rocketplane Kistler.
Although both companies met the performance standards set along the way, the Rocketplane Kistler company didn't respect its part of the contract, in raising 500 million dollars of private fundings, and the collaboration with NASA suddenly came to a halt. The space agency rushed to replace the lost partner with another orbital vehicle builder, but Rocketplane Kistler contested the termination of the contract to the US Government Accountability Office. Nevertheless, the GAO decided that Rocketplane Kistler's claims are not founded and NASA respected the law and the terms specified in the contract.
The termination of the collaboration with the Rocketplane Kistler manufacturing company leaves room for a new partner along the SpaceX, which would potentially give NASA capabilities for orbital transportation. During the partnership, NASA payed to the Rocketplane Kistler company only 32 million dollars, meaning that the remnant of 175 million dollars will be used to fund the new partner. Beth Dickey says that "NASA will sign a new contract somewhere in the end of this month."