NASA News: NASA Releases Commercial Crew Draft RFP, Announces CCDEV2 Optional Milestones

WASHINGTON -- NASA unveiled Monday an outline of its acquisition
strategy to procure transportation services from private industry to
carry U.S. astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space
Station. The agency also announced the addition of optional
milestones for the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) initiative.

"This is a significant step forward in America's amazing story of
space exploration," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "It's
further evidence we are committed to fully implementing our plan --
as laid out in the Authorization Act -- to outsource our space
station transportation so NASA can focus its energy and resources on
deep space exploration."

NASA's draft request for proposal (RFP) outlines a contract that will
be awarded to multiple companies that provide a complete end-to-end
design, including spacecraft, launch vehicles, launch services,
ground and mission operations and recovery. The Integrated Design
Contract (IDC) of up to $1.61 billion will run from July 2012 through April 2014.

"This IDC effort will bring us through the critical design phase to
fully incorporate our human spaceflight safety requirements and
NASA's International Space Station mission needs," said NASA
Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango. "We look forward to strong
U.S. industry response."

Bolden also announced Monday at a speech to the Air Force
Association's 2011 Air and Space Conference that NASA will fund
optional milestones pre-negotiated as part of some of the original
CCDev2 Space Act Agreements (SAA) to help accelerate development.

NASA amended Sierra Nevada Corp.'s SAA to include four optional
milestones for a total of $25.6 million, bringing the potential value
of Sierra Nevada's SAA to $105.6 million, if all milestones are
completed successfully.

NASA also amended Boeing's SAA to include three optional milestones
for a total of $20.6 million, bringing the potential value of
Boeing's SAA to $112.9 million, if all milestones are reached.

"All four CCDev2 partners are performing very well and meeting their
milestones," said Phil McAlister, director of NASA's Commercial
Spaceflight Development. "These additional milestones were selected
because they sufficiently accelerated the development of commercial
crew transportation systems to justify additional NASA investment."

For more information on NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial

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Media Accreditation Open For NASA'S Mars Science Lab Launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Media accreditation for the launch of NASA's
Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover is open. Liftoff aboard an
Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station in Florida is targeted for Nov. 25 at 10:21 a.m. EST.

International media representatives without U.S. citizenship must
apply for credentials by Oct. 18 because the U.S. Air Force requires
30 days to process those requests. For U.S. journalists, the
application deadline is Nov. 18.

All media accreditation requests must be submitted online at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

For questions about accreditation or additional information, contact
the Press Site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at
321-867-2468.

The launch opportunity for the laboratory extends through Dec. 18. For
more information about the mission, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

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