14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the American space agency announce that the organization has just received a funding boost of $40 million. The money are designed to support the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program that NASA has set up for the private spaceflight industry.
While Congress has yet to approved the release of the funds, the agency also plans to double that amount by March, in order to provide increased support for two logistics services that are currently being developed under the program.
The services are being developed by Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) and by Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC). Both companies recently achieved significant milestones in their efforts.
SpaceX registered two major breakthroughs in 2010. The first was the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 medium-lift delivery system in June, and the other was the second launch of the rocket, this time carrying a demonstrator of the Dragon space capsule.
The spacecraft managed to reach low-Earth orbit (LEO), did a few spins around the planet, and then reentered the atmosphere for a landing in the Pacific Ocean. All systems that were tested during this flight returned nominal results.
In addition, the company also completed four milestones set by NASA for 2010, for each of which it will receive $5 million. These included Dragon cargo vibration tests, demonstrating the test capabilities of SpaceX's test facility, deploying Dragon's solar panels and simulating the capsule's sensors.
One the other hand, OSC earned a $20 million payout for completing a mission concept review in anticipation of congressional approval. The upcoming flight will be carried out by the Taurus 2 medium-class rocket that the company is developing.
The delivery system is to take the Cygnus space capsule to the International Space Station (ISS). OSC plans to conduct a flight test of the two later in 2011. The original SpaceX and OSC COTS contracts are worth $278 million and $170 million, respectively.
Funding is now the only issue, and the space agency has very limited flexibility in the matter. Elizabeth Robinson, Chief Financial Officer at NASA, says that the organization is now operating under a continuing resolution, which keeps it at 2010 funding levels.
At this point, the agency has very few options for transferring money from other programs to COTS, in order to support SpaceX and OSC. If the 2011 budget proposal passes, then this program will receive a $300 million boost, Space reports.