The other week NASA awarded $10 million in contracts to seven firms to support the development of cargo flights to the International Space Station. These seven firms are:-- Virgin Galactic in Mojave, California;
-- Armadillo Aerospace in Heath, Texas;
-- Near Space Corp. in Tillamook, Oregon;
-- Masten Space Systems in Mojave, California;
-- Up Aerospace Inc. in Highlands Ranch, Colorado;
-- Whittinghill Aerospace LLC in Camarillo, California; and
-- XCOR in Mojave, California.
The maximum amount that can go to any one contractor over the 2-year contract period is $5 million. While this is not a significant amount of money for budding space companies, it is still an incentive to develop the next generation of cargo missions.
California is certainly well represented on this list of companies. And I find the names of companies that I do not often see in the news, such as Masten Space Systems (see image for their reusable launch vehicle). Back in May, Masten announced plans to perform a series of demonstration flights of a Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) reusable suborbital launch vehicle from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. While the company's website is silent on a date for this launch, earlier media stories indicate it was to happen sometime in 2011.
Masten Space Systems has other goals in addition to cargo. For example, the company was also the winner of the 2009 Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander X Challenge. You can see a video of their entry here. Armadillo Aerospace took second place in this contest. The X PRIZE Foundation has done a lot of great work over the years encouraging new ideas and inventions.
NASA is also hopeful. "The government's ability to open the suborbital research frontier to a broad community of innovators will enable maturation of the new technologies and capabilities needed for NASA's future missions in space" said NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Let's hope these private sector ventures get off the ground super quick - America's ability to continue as a space-faring nation depends upon it.