|
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are contracts awarded by NASA for delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarded $1.6 billion to SpaceX for 12 cargo transport missions and $1.9 billion to Orbital Sciences for 8 missions, covering deliveries to 2016. In 2015, NASA extended the contract by ordering another three resupply flights from SpaceX and one from Orbital Sciences. The second round of contracts, CRS2, will cover deliveries from 2017 until 2024 and are expected to be awarded in 2015.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://spacenews.com/39595nasa-preparing-follow-on-commercial-cargo-delivery-contract/ )〕 SpaceX began flying resupply missions in 2012, using Dragon cargo spacecraft launched on Falcon 9 rockets from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Orbital Sciences began deliveries in 2013 using Cygnus spacecraft launched on the Antares rocket from Launch Pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), Wallops Island, Virginia. ==History== US public laws dating back to 1984 and 1990 have directed NASA to pursue commercial options for launching spaceflight missions, whenever such commercial offerings are available. By the 2000s, other more specific Congressional authorizations began to fund explicit development of commercial options for NASA, first for cargo services, and later for ISS crew transport services as well. The selection of the firms resupplying the space station was publicly discussed by NASA on December 22, 2008. NASA announced the awarding of contracts to both Orbital Sciences Corporation and SpaceX in a press conference on December 23, 2008.〔("NASA Awards Space Station Commercial Resupply Services Contracts" ). NASA, December 23, 2008.〕 PlanetSpace submitted a protest to the Government Accountability Office after receiving a NASA briefing on the outcome of the award. On April 22, 2009 GAO publicly released its decision to deny the protest. SpaceX launched their first Falcon 9 rocket and a mock-up Dragon capsule successfully on June 4, 2010. Their first flight contracted by NASA, COTS Demo Flight 1, took place on December 8, 2010, demonstrating the Dragon capsule's multiple orbit capability, ability to receive and respond to ground commands, and ability to gain and maintain directional alignment with NASA's TDRSS narrow-band satellite communication system. On August 15, 2011, SpaceX announced NASA had combined the mission objectives of the COTS Demo Flight 2 and 3 missions into a single mission, with the COTS 3 validation tests beginning only if all of the COTS 2 objectives were successfully demonstrated first. The COTS Demo Flight 2+ mission successfully launched on May 22, 2012, delivered cargo to the ISS and on May 31, landed in the Pacific and was recovered. On August 23, 2012, NASA announced that SpaceX had successfully completed its COTS Space Act Agreement and NASA certified SpaceX to begin their CRS contracted spaceflights. The launch vehicles and cargo carriers were developed using Space Act Agreements under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/about/c3po.html )〕 NASA began a formal process to initiate Phase 2 of the Commercial Resupply Services, ''CRS2'', in early 2014. Contracts are expected to be awarded for CRS2 in early 2015.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Commercial Resupply Services」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|