WASHINGTON - NASA has approved the completion of SpaceX's first milestone in the company's path toward launching crews to the International Space Station (ISS) from U.S. soil under a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with the agency.
During the Certification Baseline Review, SpaceX described its current design baseline including how the company plans to manufacture its Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 v.1.1 rocket, then launch, fly, land and recover the crew. The company also outlined how it will achieve NASA certification of its system to enable transport of crews to and from the space station.
On Sept. 16, the agency unveiled its selection of SpaceX and Boeing to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their Crew Dragon and CST-100 spacecraft, respectively. These contracts will end the nation's sole reliance on Russia and allow the station's current crew of six to increase, enabling more research aboard the unique microgravity laboratory.
Under the CCtCap contracts, the companies will complete NASA certification of their human space transportation systems, including a crewed flight test with at least one NASA astronaut aboard, to verify the fully integrated rocket and spacecraft system can launch from the United States, maneuver in orbit, and dock to the space station, and validate its systems perform as expected.
Throughout the next few years, SpaceX will test its systems, materials and concept of operations to the limits to prove they are safe to transport astronauts to the station. Once certified, the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket will be processed and integrated inside a new hangar before being rolled out for launch. This will all take place at the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Crew Dragon is expected to be able to dock to the station for up to 210 days and serve as a 24-hour safe haven during an emergency in space.
With the completion of the CCiCap initiative, NASA's commercial crew faces some uncertainty moving forward. NASA named Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) as the winners of the next phase of the commercial crew program in September. Under the plan, the two companies will share $6.8 billion to develop and launch human rated crew vehicles. However, the third competitor, Sierra Nevada, has protested the awards. While NASA has issued documents demonstrating reasons why it picked Boeing and SpaceX for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program, it is unclear how the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will ultimately rule. Until a decision is made, Boeing and SpaceX will continue to work on their respective systems.
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