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Experience is an active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill. Experience is a very important quality to have when it applies the design of space technology.

SpaceDev is a private space company that has experience in the space industry; SpaceDev has about nine years of experience in the design of space technology. In 1997, SpaceDev was founded by Jim Benson to help further commercial space exploration. Some of the company's experience includes the mission design of the NASA satellite CHIPSat, the design, development, and assembly of the hybrid rocket motors for Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne, and other experience such as the development of micro satellites. In addition, SpaceDev has been awarded many contracts with organizations such as the Air Force Research Laboratory, Boeing, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and many other major aerospace companies. All of this experience will be very valuable in helping SpaceDev win the NASA COTS competition.

After the COTS competition was announced, a lot people were thrilled to see NASA give the private space sector an opportunity to aid in space exploration. Jim Benson was one of the many people who gladly approved the COTS competition.

In his interview with Bill McCoy about COTS, Jim Benson quoted, "I think this is a really great program [COTS] and a brilliant ideal by Mike Griffin to turn NASA into much different and needed direction that all of us have been hoping and campaigning for many years."

Even if SpaceDev is not selected a winner of COTS, they will still build their space vehicle, the Dream Chaser. The Dream Chaser is designed to be cost effective, simple, practical, and straight forward. It will be very cost effective compared to the launching of the Space Shuttle. If SpaceDev's Dream Chaser is successful, the cost to launch it would be a quarter of the cost.

The Dream Chaser is currently an existing and proven design that is designed to be very safe. One of the reasons is because the vehicle will be using hybrid rocket motors. Hybrid rocket motors are virtually non-explosive. Hybrid rockets consist of a solid hydro carbon (HTTP), which is also a synthetic rubber that is used as the fuel. For the oxidizer, it uses a non-explosive and easy to handle nitrous oxide. Some common oxidizers used in rocket motors are hydrogen peroxide and liquid oxygen. Hydrogen peroxide is very dangerous because it is highly explosive. Liquid oxygen is very hard to handle because it needs to remain at around -219 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, nitrous oxide is at room temperature and is non-explosive.

Also since the Dream Chaser will not be using any cryogenic liquid, the vehicle will not have any foam like the Space Shuttle. As we have seen in the past with Discovery, the foam on the external tanks is very dangerous to the safety of the vehicle and crew. Also, hybrid rockets are very safe on the environment because they do not produce any pollutants.

The vehicle would be primarily launched from a space port in Wallace Island, Maryland. The space launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida would be a secondary site. If SpaceDev's vehicle is successful, Jim Benson said it could create several dozen new jobs in the long-term future. Although SpaceDev will build the vehicle even if they do not win the competition, it would be very beneficial to SpaceDev if they were awarded the contract. The contract would increase the profits for SpaceDev and they would see an increase in their role of contributing to space exploration.

Written by Richard Kirkpatrick

SPACEHAB, Inc was incorporated in 1984. The company was originally founded to develop, own, and operate assets for commercial space flight. They work with corporate, academic, and governmental customers providing a one-stop shopping for all their space travel needs. Their goal is provide reliable and affordable space access solutions. This includes habitat and lab modules, as well as cargo carriers. They have been a part of 20 missions on the space shuttle and been part of over 180 missions to space.

SPACEHAB has 3 business units: SPACEHAB Flight Services, Astrotech Space Operations and SPACEHAB Government Services. These three business areas combine to provide a plethora of products and services. These include but are not limited to commercial access to space, payload processing, spacecraft processing, engineering and analysis, on-orbit research, logistics and facility services.

The SPACEHAB entry into the COTS competition is called Apex. According to SPACEHAB, Apex, like SPACEHAB, really does it all. It provides cargo transportation, research and technology development, payload hosting, satellite deployment, industrial processing, media content and advertising, collectibles and memorials and payload mass up to four thousand kilograms and volume up to eight cubic meters. The Apex can either be pressurized or unpressurized. The Apex has been built on over 20 years of experience and is not dependent on a single launch vehicle. It is compatible with most commercial rockets. SPACEHAB feels that COTS is a natural extension of what it is currently doing, which is providing a way to supply and support the International Space Station or ISS. Apex is modular and comes in different sizes with the 400 series the one that meets the needs of the COTS competition. The Apex would normally be launched from Florida.

SPACEHAB understands the significance of NASA investing in the Apex program and becoming a key customer of it. But SPACEHAB has been a leader in the field for a long time and will continue to provide commercial space access services. They went on to state that if they were not awarded the contract that it would most likely impact mission focus, rendezvous and docking as well as vehicle size. With COTS, the focus is to demonstrate a delivery system to the ISS with thousands of pounds of cargo. Otherwise, the company believes it would focus on a smaller vehicle to fly to low earth orbit or LEO with an emphasis on performing research, the Department of Defense needs, deploying satellites, pursuing industrial processing activities and providing access to space for commercial customers.

SPACEHAB feels that its past experience speaks for itself. Their proposal is solid on the basis of experience, reliability and affordability. They are using a proven technology as well as off-the-shelf systems. By not being tied to one launch vehicle, they can use they most cost effective rocket available at that time. They have been working with NASA for almost 20 years and their culture and protocol have become second nature at SPACEHAB.

Written by Greg Trotti

Image Credit: Thom Rogers

SpaceX responded to some of our questions but declined to do a podcast interview at this time. They are working hard at continuing to meet their own development efforts as well as competing in the COTS arena. As most of you know, SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in June of 2002. Prior to SpaceX, Elon was a co-founder of PayPal which is the world's largest electronic payment system. It was his goal to make the same revolutionary steps in the commercial space industry as he did in the electronic payments field. His and his company's goals are to develop a family of vehicles that will not only increase reliability but it will also greatly reduce cost. Currently, the company's core business is satellite delivery into orbit, with the ultimate goal being human space transportation.

SpaceX has developed the Falcon 1, Falcon 5 and Falcon 9. The Falcon crafts were designed after reviewing historic and current launch vehicles to make sure it was the best design possible. Further support for the Falcon design was drawn from a Futron study which concluded it was the hightest design reliability of any American launch vehicle. Talk about reliability – the Falcon 5 and Falcon 9 are the only American launch vehicles that can actually lose an engine or a motor and still reach orbit.

Unfortunately the maiden flight of Falcon 1 on March 24th 2006 failed. They had a successful liftoff but it was lost later on during the first stage burn. The cause was a fuel leak and fire. Just a few weeks ago they determined the most likely cause came down to a faulty aluminum B-nut that corroded due to being over exposed to the elements. To quote their press release "In what appears to be a stroke of extremely bad luck, it happened for the first time on launch day."

As far as COTS is concerned depending on the cargo, SpaceX can use any one of these vehicles to get it where you need to go. Falcon 1 is capable of carrying approximately 1,500 pounds. Falcon 5 can carry up to 10,000 pounds while the Falcon 9 can carry 21,000 pounds in it medium configuration or around 55,000 pounds to Low Earth Orbit in its heavy mode. Falcon 5 and Falcon 9 can also carry payloads beyond this to  geosynchronous orbits or even to escape velocity.

Falcon 5 and Falcon 9 are unique in the fact that both stages are reusable. These are the first fully reusable launch vehicles ever. SpaceX has worked with multiple government customers in the past with much success. They believe COTS will mean that the SpaceX developments will entail NASA requirements for human space travel which will put them a step ahead. SpaceX would need to hire additional staff if awarded COTS but with some current projects winding down, it would not be a large number.

While writing this article, I found out through other sources that the name of the proposed capsule to be used in conjunction with the Falcon 9 is Dragon. Dragon could be both a crew or cargo vehicle with a few differences depending on what was going up at that time. It was said that it could spend months up in space at a time before heading back to splash down.

We asked SpaceX about Dragon, and were told they did not want to discuss their COTS offer and program any more than is currently in the news. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Written by Greg Trotti

Transformational Space (T-Space) didn't respond to our emails or phone call regarding an interview but never the less here's some info we could dig up.

In order to properly compete in the NASA COTS competition, private space companies must design a vehicle with positive qualities such as affordability and safety. T-Space's main goal is to provide an affordable and safe launch vehicle capable of providing services to the International Space Station (ISS). Formed in 2004, T-Space was created to meet the needs of the President's Vision for Space Exploration. T-Space has already begun design on a Crew Transfer Vehicle (CXV) capable of providing commercial services to the ISS. In addition, T-Space will provide outposts to private space companies that wish to pursue space tourism.

T-Space is planning to benefit NASA in many different ways. For example, NASA will only pay a portion of the development cost of a new Earth-to-orbit capability. In addition, the cost of the launching the CXV will be much cheaper than the current Space Shuttle. This will help NASA because it will free up more funds for Moon and Mars exploration. Finally, the NASA's new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) can be simplified and more cost effective because it can focus solely on the Moon and Mars Exploration, rather than being focused on re-supplying the ISS.

Simplicity, survivability, and affordability are the main design factors in the future CXV. For a cost of approximately $20 million, the CXV will be capable of carrying a crew to the ISS or to a low earth orbital position. Similar to SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnightOne, the CXV will be carried to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a modified 747 airliner or another custom built aircraft. Once the aircraft reaches the desired altitude, the CXV will be dropped from the aircraft. After four seconds, the CXV will ignite its engine. After another six seconds, the CXV will begin its upward acceleration towards space.

The CXV is designed to be safe in many ways. For example, the CXV's launch from 25,000 feet is much safer for the crew than a ground based launch. In a ground based launch, the first few seconds are critical because it would be much harder to save a crew incase of a mishap. The reason it is safer is because the CXV will allow crew to be ejected easily and the high altitude will be safe for parachute deployment. If a vehicle is launched from a ground station, it is much harder to eject a crew capsule incase of a malfunction. On a ground based launch, it requires a large amount of energy to eject the capsule safely from the launch vehicle. In addition, a parachute deployment is dangerous because the crew capsule is at low altitude. Another reason the CXV will be safe is because it will use a capsule based on the design of the Corona and Discoverer, which will maximize safety for the aircraft and crew for re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. Some other safety factors include carefree re-entry, parachutes for all crew members, thermal protection system designed by NASA, and others.

By 2009, T-Space is planning a crewed demonstration flight of the CXV. T-Space certainly has their work cut out for them. They will be competing against five other space companies that strongly wish to win the COTS competition. T-Space's winning of the COTS will be very vital for the company because they formed for the sole purpose of assisting in the President's Vision for Space Exploration. If they win, it would most likely increase their profits and number of employees.

Written by Richard Kirkpatrick