NASA announced early this morning that at 4:00PM EST today, 16 September 2014, the winner of the Commercial Crew integrated Capability. will be revealed. The CCiCAP contract will give the selected company (or companies) the green light to build and ferry United States Astronauts to the International Space Station. It requires a crewed test flight with a NASA astronaut to the ISS by 2017.
This is the culmination of the Commercial Crew Development program which was started in 2010. There are currently three companies competing for the coveted NASA contract, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, and Boeing. Each company's vehicles are highlighted below, to give you a better sense of the craft that NASA has to choose from.
Company: Sierra Nevada
Vehicle: Dream Chaser
The Dream Chaser vehicle is a modern redesign of NASA'sHL-10 lifting body vehicle that it designed in the 1990's. The only one of the three vehicles that is not a capsule, it employs a lifting body design, and would land on any conventional runway. Docking to the International Space Station would be accomplished by a docking system located between the two primary Orbital Maneuvering System engines in the aft of the vehicle. Captive-Carry tests have already been completed on a full scale model, and that vehicle is currently undergoing heavy modifications to become the first Orbital test vehicle, which is slated to launch in 2016. It can transport up to seven people to space and back. Similar to the space shuttle, it can be reused an indefinite amount of times after maintenance.
Company: Boeing
Vehicle: Crew Space Transportation 100
The CST-100 vehicle is a conventional space capsule similar to NASA's Orion capsule. It would transport between 4-7 people to Low Earth Orbit, and could be configured for different missions, such as free flight or docked to a space station. Boeing has partnered with the Bigelow Aerospace company for many of the capsule's parts, and it would also be used to transport crew to Bigelow's inflatable space station. Similar to Orion, it can be reused up to ten times.
More information here.
Company: SpaceX
Vehicle: Dragon V2
The crewed Dragon capsule has been envisioned by SpaceX ever since its first unmanned flight back in 2008. The modified version of the capsule, more suitable for astronauts, was unveiled in late May of 2012. The vehicle can be reused up to ten times before significant refurbishment is required, and would land using a combination of landing struts and retrorockets. The company claims helicopter-like landing accuracy anywhere around the world. Seven astronauts could be transported to LEO.
Today's announcement will take place at Kennedy Space Center by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. It will be broadcast online as well as on NASA TV.
