NASA says it will collaborate with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture on the development of new space transportation capabilities that will provide high-frequency access to low Earth orbit for astronauts and cargo.
The project is one of seven selected for the second round of NASA’s Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities initiative, or CCSC-2. The first round began in 2014. All of the companies involved in CCSC-2 will work with NASA under the terms of unfunded Space Act Agreements. That means no money will change hands, but NASA will make its expertise available for the companies’ projects.
“It is great to see companies invest their own capital toward innovative commercial space capabilities, and we’ve seen how these types of partnerships benefit both the private sector and NASA,” Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA Headquarters, said today in a news release.
“The companies can leverage NASA’s vast knowledge and experience, and the agency can be a customer for the capabilities included in the agreements in the future,” he said. “Ultimately, these agreements will foster more competition for services and more providers for innovative space capabilities.”
Blue Origin’s suborbital space launch program, known as New Shepard, already has flown 31 people and scores of scientific payloads to space and back, in the course of six launches from its facilities in West Texas. That program has been on hold since last September, when an anomaly occurred during an uncrewed research flight. Blue Origin plans to resume flights once an investigation overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration is wrapped up.
The Kent, Wash.-based company is also getting set to launch orbital-class New Glenn rockets from Florida. And there’s still more: Blue Origin is part of a commercial space station project called Orbital Reef, and it’s leading an industry consortium that’s working on a lunar lander for NASA.
The newly announced collaboration with NASA would presumably support the development of a capsule capable of sending crew members to orbit. More than a decade ago, Blue Origin talked about building an orbital-class Space Vehicle for NASA’s use, but not much has been heard about that project lately.
The six other CCSC-2 projects are similarly aimed at extending the capabilities of the companies involved. Here’s how NASA describes those projects:
- Northrop Grumman is collaborating with NASA on the company’s Persistent Platform to provide autonomous and robotic capabilities for commercial science research and manufacturing capabilities in low Earth orbit, or LEO.
- Sierra Space is collaborating with NASA for the development of the company’s commercial LEO ecosystem, including next-generation space transportation, in-space infrastructure, and expandable and tailorable space facilities providing a human presence in LEO.
- SpaceX is collaborating with NASA on an integrated LEO architecture to provide a growing portfolio of technology with near-term Dragon evolution and concurrent Starship development. This architecture includes Starship as a transportation and in-space LEO destination element supported by Super Heavy, Dragon and Starlink, and constituent capabilities including crew and cargo transportation, communications and operational and ground support.
- Special Aerospace Services is collaborating with NASA on an in-space servicing technology, propulsion and robotic technology called the Autonomous Maneuvering Unit and the Astronaut Assist-AMU. The technology would enable commercial in-space servicing and mobility applications intended for safer assembly of commercial LEO destinations, servicing, retrieval and inspection of in-space systems.
- ThinkOrbital is collaborating with NASA on the development of ThinkPlatforms and CONTESA (Construction Technologies for Space Applications). ThinkPlatforms are self-assembling, single-launch, large-scale orbital platforms that facilitate a wide array of applications in LEO, including in-space research, manufacturing and astronaut missions. CONTESA features welding, cutting, inspection and additive manufacturing technologies, and aids in large-scale in-space fabrication.
- Vast Space is collaborating with NASA on technologies and operations required for its microgravity and artificial gravity stations. This includes the Haven-1 commercial destination, which will provide a microgravity environment for crew, research and in-space manufacturing; and Vast-1, the first crewed mission to Haven-1. Development activities for larger space station modules will also take place under the Space Act Agreement.
Update for 9:55 a.m. June 16: When contacted by GeekWire, Blue Origin said it had nothing to add to NASA’s announcement at this time.
