Space Act Agreement

NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo
Initiative Period

Development
Commercial Cargo Development 2006 - 2013
Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities 2007 - 2010
Commercial Crew Development (phase 1) 2010 - 2011
Commercial Crew Development (phase 2) 2011 - 2012
Commercial Crew integrated Capability (phase 3)
(base period milestones)
2012 - 2014
Commercial Crew integrated Capability (phase 4)
(optional period milestones)
2014 - 2017
Certification
Certification Products Contract (crew) 2012 - 2014
Commercial Crew Transportation Capability 2014 - 2017
Services
Commercial Resupply Services (cargo) 2011 - 2016
ISS Crew Transportation Services (crew) 2017 -

NASA's COTS program
Private spaceflight companies

Space Act Agreements (abbreviated SAA) are a type of legal agreement specified in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (and subsequent congressional authorizations) that uniquely empowers NASA to work with any entity that enables fulfillment of the Administration's mandate. As recently as the 2010 authorization of (Pub.L. 111–314):

Contracts, Leases, and Agreements.--In the performance of its functions, the Administration is authorized, without regard to subsections (a) and (b) of section 3324 of title 31, to enter into and perform such contracts, leases, cooperative agreements, or other transactions as may be necessary in the conduct of its work and on such terms as it may deem appropriate, with any agency or instrumentality of the United States, or with any State, territory, or possession, or with any political subdivision thereof, or with any person, firm, association, corporation, or educational institution.[1]

The Agency enters into SAAs with various partners to advance NASA mission and program objectives, including international cooperative space activities.[2]

Definitions for Agreement Types

Examples of Space Act Agreements

Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities

Agreements of this type have been reached under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Crew Development (CCDev). They are not subject to normal Federal Acquisition Regulations.

Besides these two initiatives NASA has concluded five other agreements in the Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities (CSTC).

Five agreements were signed between January 2007 and June 2007:[3]

All three of the Space Act Agreement initiatives, COTS, CSTC and CCDev are for development, engineering and testing of design concepts, but CSTC is different from the other two initiatives in no providing any funding. CSTC agreements are only instruments committing NASA to increase cooperation and to support the private sector companies with information and other facilities, but this commitment is without financial implications and both sides (NASA and the private companies) should ensure by themselves the required funds for their respective parts of the activities.[10]

Results

Four of the cooperation agreements signed are for a period of maximum 3 years[4][5][6][9][11] which have lapsed in 2010. In the fifth one, that of SpaceDev, the period is censored.[7]

So far NASA has published a list of accomplished progress milestones only for SpaceDev,[8] and the same Dream Chaser spacecraft is also one of the winners (albeit with different milestones) of CCDev rounds 1[12] and 2.[13]

References

  1. Sec. 20113(e). Powers of the Administration in performance of functions - National Aeronautics and Space Act of 2010"
  2. NASA Shared Services Center - Space Act Agreements
  3. Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities Agreements
  4. 1 2 Planetspace Space Act
  5. 1 2 tSpace Space Act
  6. 1 2 Spacehab Space Act
  7. 1 2 SpaceDev Space Act
  8. 1 2 SpaceDev progress with Space Act milestones
  9. 1 2 Constellation Services International Space Act
  10. Space Act Agreements Guide 2008: Under a nonreimbursable agreement, each party assumes responsibility for its own costs.
  11. "shall remain in effect until the completion of all obligations of both parties hereto, or 3 years from the date of the last signature, whichever comes first."
  12. CCDev1 - Dream Chaser
  13. Morring, Frank, Jr. (2011-04-22). "Five Vehicles Vie To Succeed Space Shuttle". Aviation Week. Retrieved 2011-02-23. the CCDev-2 awards, ... went to Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX).

External links

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