SPACEHAB Does More Than Wish For NASA COTS Award

NASA‘s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Phase 1 Demonstrations Request for Proposal (RFP), based on the Advanced Research and Conventional Technology Utilizations Spacecraft (ARCTUS) design, has been responded to by SPACEHAB, Inc. And with affiliates the likes of Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, Cimarron and Odyssey Space Research, a commercial cargo transportation capability is being developed. This capability will serve NASA’s need for cargo services to the International Space Station (ISS) and other commercial needs, which include SPACEHAB’s Microgravity Processing activities. SPACEHAB will draw from existing components and infrastructure to provide a reliable, low-cost and low-risk solution, as is the goal of the ARCTUS design philosophy. The structural and avionics components will be from Lockheed Martin from that company’s Centaur and XSS-11 programs. United Launch Alliance will provide launch services using the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) Atlas V or Delta IV. Mission control center development and integration will be provided by Cimarron. Trajectory analysis and other, associated, integrated services will be from Odyssey Space Research.









The NASA RFP was released last October and seeks one or more funded Space Act Agreements (SAAs) with private industry. The development and demo of the vehicles, systems and operations needed to ensure resupply, return cargo from, and transport crew to and from low Earth orbit after 2010 are all called for in this massive undertaking. The project will help to fill the gap between the space shuttle’s scheduled retirement and 2015 when the planned replacement Constellation Program becomes operational. SPACEHAB is working to develop ARCTUS under an unfunded SAA with NASA. The COTS I award, expected in early 2008, will provide NASA investment to the winning solutions through a funded SAA and as much as $174 million will be available under this pending award—Houston, Texas