Company interested in developing a Cape Breton shuttle launch site fails to win $170 million in NASA competition, but still expects to succeed.
By Ashley Fitzpatrick <ashleyfitz36@hotmail.com>
Posted: Feb. 20, 2008
NASA wants to farm out it's work close to earth to private companies in the near future, in order to allow itself to focus on developing travel to the moon and beyond. (Photo: stock.xchng)
A private company hoping to set up a space shuttle launch site in Cape Breton has lost a bid for NASA funding.
PlanetSpace Inc., a developer of space-related technologies, was turned down for a US $170 million agreement with NASA on Monday, after the funding was awarded to another company.
A number of companies competed for the money - tagged by NASA for the development of a test flight for commercial orbital transportation services (COTS). If possible, NASA plans to use private shuttles and services for the future delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
The PlanetSpace proposal was one of 13 in the NASA competition.
According to PlanetSpace Chairman Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, the company’s proposal included plans for the future development of Cape Breton, where PlanetSpace still plans to have a space launch. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
“We did include a launch site in Nova Scotia as a primary launch site for the Silver Dart [PlanetSpace vehicle] for point to point travel and space tourism,” said Kathuria on Monday. He added that the company included a Florida launch site “for small/medium size secondary commercial and satellite launches and NASA cargo and crew missions."
The company added the Florida launch site through an agreement with SpaceFlorida—a state aerospace economic development corporation. The Florida development, as reported in a SpaceFlorida press release, “could generate approximately 346 jobs annually with a cumulative economic impact to the State of Florida estimated to be US $313 million."
For Cape Breton, the province's development agency Nova Scotia Business Inc. has been consulting with PlanetSpace. Unfortunately, Nova Scotia Business Inc. did not answer any questions regarding these talks by press time.
An artist rendering of Orbital's proposed Taurus II spacecraft at the Wallops Island launch site (Image: Courtesy of the Orbital Sciences Corporation)
NASA asked the companies submitting proposals to consider both costs and technical abilities. It expected them to develop private partnerships in order to remain sustainable and be available to service NASA in the future.
The contest submissions were judged by a panel of scientific and business experts.
“We believed we had the strongest bid with Lockheed Martin and ATK as partners,” said Kathuria.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation entered the winning proposal. Orbital plans to use the funds to make a demonstration test flight of its vehicle in 2010.
In a news release, Orbital Chief Executive Officer David Thompson emphasized the importance of such an award for private developers and for NASA as well.
“For NASA,” stated Thompson, “the ability to deliver cargo to the International Space Station with reasonably priced commercial services is part of its long-term plan to rely on American industry for routine Earth-orbit operations, as the space agency focuses on returning astronauts to the Moon and beyond.”
NASA would not reveal the contents of the proposals reviewed for Monday’s award. Launch sites for completed projects were not a serious factor in the decision however, according to officials at the announcement.
“At least one of the companies had proposed an evolutional ability to launch outside the United States,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the NASA commercial crew and cargo program.
However, said Doug Cooke, NASA deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, “we didn’t have that discussion as part of the evaluation.”
The launch site planned for Orbital’s test flight and any subsequent Orbital missions is NASA’s Wallop Island space facility in Virginia.
An Orbital craft preparing to dock with the International Space Station. (Image: Courtesy of the Orbital Sciences Corporation)
Orbital’s proposal stated that, following the end of their COTS I project funding in 2010, the company would have the capability to complete cargo re-supply missions.
With up to eight re-supply runs to the International Space Station every year, that could mean big business for Orbital. Yet Monday’s announcement did not name the companies that would supply those contracts or mention their potential value.
NASA is planning to open these cargo missions for bidding to all capable private companies, according to Cooke. “In terms of what it actually costs us,” said Cooke, “we’re leaving that open to competition.”
While PlanetSpace may not have been awarded the latest NASA development funding, it may still be able to win the future NASA contracts related to the space station. NASA is already working with the company on its development through a sharing of information, but the arrangement does not include funding.
According to Kathuria, PlanetSpace is already preparing a proposal for the next round of NASA funding which is expected to come in August and be worth US $2.6 billion over five years.
“We will bid for COTS II,” said Kathuria, “This is the real prize. We wish we had won the demonstration money [COTS I] too. C’est la vie.”
Update
Feb 22, 2008-- Hughes Gilbert of the Canadian Space Agency confirmed in a phone interview with NovaNewsNet, the day after this story was posted, that the Canadian government has no intention of investing money in the building or maintenance of a shuttle launch facility in Cape Breton or anywhere else due to the expense. "It is very costly to develop that capability and to maintain it afterwards," said Gilbert.
However Gilbert did not rule out supplying Canadian Space Agency information to private companies for technical development. He added that the agency would also consider launching future operations from a facility built and maintained by a private company.
In other words, if not awarded the next round of NASA funding, PlanetSpace must be able to build it's own facility through private partnerships as it currently will not be funded by the Canadian government.