ISS missions to continue from Virginia as Orbital wins new NASA contract
Virginia will be in the commercial space business for more years to come, its spaceport launching more resupply missions to the International Space Station at least through 2024 under a new set of contracts NASA unveiled Thursday.
Dulles-based Orbital ATK was one of three space transportation companies each awarded a contract for at least six more space station missions beginning in late 2019. Orbital is already ferrying cargo from Wallops Island to the space station under a $1.9 billion commercial contract set to run at least through this year.
Orbital said the value of its new contract ranges from about $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion, although not all six missions will launch from Virginia. Depending on mission needs, NASA said some of those flights could launch from Florida.
Still, Gov. Terry McAuliffe called the news a "big win for Virginia and space exploration."
The win wasn't a sure thing.
Orbital suffered a catastrophic setback in October 2014 when its unmanned Antares rocket attempting a third operational cargo run to the station blew up seconds after liftoff from Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS).
No one was injured, but the explosion caused $15 million in damages that took a year to repair. After months of wrangling over who would pay for it, the cost was eventually shared equally by Orbital, NASA and Virginia taxpayers.
"We have come a long way in the last year," McAuliffe said in a statement. "MARS has fully recovered from the October 2014 launch mishap."
After the announcement, Orbital ATK President David W. Thompson said in a statement, "We are grateful for NASA's continued confidence in our ability to provide reliable and affordable commercial cargo transportation services."
Orbital is expected to resume launches from Virginia later this year under the terms of its first contract, this time using an upgraded Antares.
Details
NASA awarded the other two contracts to Sierra Nevada, which is developing a winged spacecraft called the Dream Chaser capable of carrying cargo into orbiting destinations and returning to land on an airport runway, and to California-based SpaceX, which also has a current NASA resupply contract.
Commercial resupply missions suffered another blow last year when SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster carrying ISS cargo blew up just after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA said choosing three commercial partners this time instead of two offers more flexibility in types of delivery services to the station, as well as redundancy should another such mishap occur, delaying needed supplies to station astronauts.
"When we awarded (the first contracts), we were learning how to operate the International Space Station without a Space Shuttle," said Kirk Shireman, ISS program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "It took us a while to learn the new contracts and how to write them appropriately."
That learning curve also means more changes to the contracts this time out, he said.
For one, NASA will measure volume and mass more efficiently to deliver a larger amount of cargo on a single flight, he said, reducing the number of missions and freeing up station astronauts from time-consuming spacecraft monitoring, berthing, unpacking and packing.
Another key difference, he said, is an insurance requirement to cover damage to government property during launch, reentry, transportation to the vicinity of the station and docking and undocking.
'Great news'
According to NASA, each commercial partner brings something different to the table, including pressurized and unpressurized cargo delivery and disposal, and berthing or docking capabilility.
Sierra Nevada can also offer a rapid return to a soft landing, which Julie Robinson, ISS chief scientist at Johnson, said will be key to getting valuable science samples safely in the hands of researchers within three hours of landing, as opposed to 24.
The new missions will also enable NASA to add a seventh astronaut to the space station, she said.
NASA turned to the commercial space industry to ferry cargo to station astronauts in part to free up the agency to concentrate on higher-profile deep-space missions, such as retrieving an asteroid for study and sending a crew to Mars.
On Thursday, Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said they were pleased that resupply missions will continue from Virginia.
"This announcement is great news for Orbital ATK, the Eastern Shore and all of Virginia," said Warner, touting the high-skill jobs it will create or retain.
Kaine called it a "game-changing investment for the commonwealth."
