NASA Awards Commercial Crew Contracts

NASA awarded five small contracts today to companies vying a piece of the commercial crew pie. The funding, $50 million, is part of the $1 billion NASA received in the stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The five contracts, awarded as Space Act Agreements, went to:

• Blue Origin, $3.7 million
• The Boeing Company, $18 million
• Paragon Space Development Corporation, $1.4 million
• Sierra Nevada Corporation, $20 million
• United Launch Alliance, $6.7 million

NASA’s press release said that the agreements are for developing “crew concepts and technology demonstrations for future commercial support of human spaceflight.” As evidenced in NASA’s FY2011 budget, the agency has decided that commercial human space flight is the best path forward instead of the Constellation program. Congress will have to decide if it agrees.