Thoughts on Rep Wolf’s commercial crew statement

by | Jun 5, 2012 | Seradata News | 1 comment

Representative Frank Wolf, representative from Virginia’s 10th congressional district, has long been ardently opposed to a competitive contracting process for NASA’s commercial crew programme. Because Rep. Wolf chairs the House subcommittee on commerce, justice and science (CJS), he’s in a position of great influence over NASA. Previously, he’s used his position to push through very tight restrictions on exchanges with China, making it virtually impossible to connect in any legitimate way. “If my Chinese counterpart comes here, I’m forbidden to even buy him a cup of coffee,” says one high-ranking NASA employee.

But Rep. Wolf appears to have had a change of heart on commercial crew. According to a release by his office, Wolf and NASA have reached an agreement on the way forward.

The deal is essentially that NASA will receive funding at or near the levels promised by the Senate — $525 million or so — if the commercial crew integrated capability (CCiCap) space act agreements are limited to 2.5 (two primaries, and one partial award), if CCiCap is the final development round and if the next contract awards are the standard federal acquition regulations.

If true — it is unconfirmed by NASA at this time — it means a much tighter competition for funds among the commercial companies. While the ongoing contract, CCDev II, included four companies — Blue Origin, Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada — limiting to two (and a half) going forward means the real cutoff. Though the programmes have become increasingly stable with time, technical maturity and sunk cost, it may mean the end of losing programmes.

An additional consideration is — remember, unconfirmed — it locks NASA into FAR-based contracts. The commercial companies have been loving the Space Act Agreements, which allows NASA a pretty hands-off approach and could allow a services-based contract when the actual ISS transport missions come about. A FAR contract is much more stringent — it requires government cooperation and approval at every step, resulting in a government-owned rocket being launched. It will undoubtedly be slower and more cumbersome, but allow for a greater degree of confidence on NASA’s part.

About Seradata

Seradata produces the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacechinavideoFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 525virgin galacticULAfalcon 9evaRoscosmosspacewalkDGAaviation weekBlue OriginaresInternational Space StationIGTsoyuzRocket LabBeidouawardsStarlinkAirbus DSspaceboeingSatellite broadcastingrussiaOneWebmoonISROCargo Return VehiclemarsblogresearchspaceshiptwoorionjaxamarsimpactdelayhyperbolaEutelsatdemocratrocketlunarhypertextobamagoogle lunar prizelaunchVegathales alenia spaceSESconstellationtourismbarack obamafiguresnorthspaceflightIntelsatnode 2fundedRaymond Lygo2009Lockheed MartinExpress MD-2Elon MuskAtlas Vromess2dassault aviationsstlaviationLucy2008wk2ukradiosuborbitaltestmissiledocking portexplorationAriane 5 ECAVirgin OrbitinternetSLSLong March 2D/2China Manned Space Engineeringsts-122Ariane 5Northrop GrummanElectronmissile defensenewspapercotsgalileospace tourismflight2010Long March 4CspaceportExpress AMU 1buildspace stationaltairsoyuz 2-1ashuttleProton Minternational astronautical congressscaled compositesAriane 6Intelsat 23space shuttleLauncherOneEuropean Space AgencyCosmoshanleybudgetrulesnew yorkLong March 2CInmarsatnew shepardVietnamatvshenzhoucongressMojaveboldenOrbital ATKcnesUS Air ForceGuiana Space Centerlunar landeriackscApollolawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BKuaizhou 1AElectron KSILSprotondarpaTalulah RileyVega CFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5North KoreaeuSkylonlanderAstriumbaseusaastronautdragonpicturefiveeventTelesatSSLViasatSpace InsuranceAprilSNClaunchesSea LaunchinterviewWednesdayLong Marchfalcon50thcustomer

Stay Informed with Seradata

Stay informed on the latest news, insights, and more from Seradata by signing up for our newsletter.