NASA has selected seven U.S. companies as part of its Commercial Space Capabilities Collaborations-2 (CCSC-2) initiative. The space agency will oversee the development of the ideas these companies propose for low Earth orbit. Companies in the second round of commercial cooperation include Blue Origin, SpaceX, Sierra Space, ThinkOrbital, Vast Space, Space Exploration Technologies and Northrop Grumman. Neither of these companies will receive any money from NASA under these unfunded Space Law Agreements, but they will be able to benefit from the space agency’s expertise.An affordable commercial space transport
As part of the new initiative, Blue Origin will develop an affordable commercial space transport capability to transport crews to low Earth orbit at high frequencies. The company, founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, had previously signed a deal funded by NASA to develop a spacecraft for the agency’s commercial crew program. Blue Origin began testing the design of the next-generation spacecraft in 2012, but the spacecraft never came to light.
Crewed Dragon capsule
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company is part of NASA’s new commercial initiative to develop an “integrated low-Earth orbit architecture” that will use the Starship rocket for transportation and the crewed Dragon capsule for the “low-Earth orbit target element in space,” according to NASA’s statement. another company.
“It’s great to see companies invest their own capital in innovative commercial space capabilities, and we’ve seen how such partnerships benefit both the private sector and NASA,” Phil McAlister, Director of Commercial Space Flights at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement. said.
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