Jonathan Amos reports on progress with the Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft for delivering cargo to the ISS and looks at the involvement in the project by Thales Alenia Space (TAS), which is building the Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM): The private spaceships taking shape in Torino - Spaceman/BBC.

The Cygnus Updates page at Orbital also has pictures posted in May on the project: The First Cygnus Pressurized Cargo Module Takes Shape in Italy.

See also the Cygnus™ Advanced Maneuvering Spacecraft - Fact Sheet - Orbital Sciences (pdf).

The second COTS demonstration flight of the Falcon 9/Dragon (the third flight of the Falcon 9) will be delayed by 5 months from the current schedule: NASA Told To Expect Longer Wait Between SpaceX Demo Flights - SpaceNews.com.

Regarding Elon Musk's cash flow problems mentioned earlier, the article says,

Williams said SpaceX’s progress on flight hardware is unaffected by the personal finances of the company’s founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, who told a California divorce court in February that he was out of cash and had resorted to borrowing money from friends to cover monthly household expenses.

“SpaceX is a company of 1,000 men and women developing and producing highly reliable and low cost space transportation systems. We have been financially stable with no investment from our CEO for many years,” Williams wrote in a May 28 e-mail. “SpaceX has well over $2 billion under contract … Therefore, any momentary illiquidity that Elon may be experiencing is completely irrelevant to the company and our future.”

Williams said that although Musk remains SpaceX’s largest shareholder “he is only one of a number of investors at this point.” Other large investors, he said, include Menlo Park, Calif.-based Draper Fisher Jurveston and the Founders Fund, a San Francisco firm managed by one of Musk’s former PayPal partners.

To help insure that at least one of the two contractors, Orbital Science and SpaceX, in the COTS program would succeed at the crucial task of delivering cargo to the ISS, the Augustine panel recommended that NASA offer some financial incentives (see page 57 in the final report). The numbers discussed were in the range of a bonus of $100M to each firm that met its initial delivery deadline. In the actual budget proposed by the administration, the commercial cargo program would get an extra $300M. It was not clear, though, exactly how this funding will be allocated. Instead of a simple incentive award, there was talk of paying the firms to meet new milestones and to add further capabilities.

There has been some worry expressed that this money would turn the program into a de facto cost-plus arrangement that undermines the "skin-in-the-game", fixed-price, milestone approach that is needed to drive down the costs of NASA projects. It's important to note, though, that, as far as I can tell, neither company had asked for more money.

This article discusses how Orbital would use its additional funding if it is made available: Orbital Would Use COTS Boost To Augment Taurus 2 Testing - SpaceNews.com.

There are various numbers bandied about regarding what SpaceX will be paid by NASA for cargo delivery to the ISS, e.g. like this one mentioned in a comment here. The following clarification came from Elon Musk,

I see a lot of nonsense out there about our costs. F9/Dragon can take 3500 kg of useful payload to Station and the cost is $110M in 2009 dollars, so ~$31,400/kg [plus adjusting for inflation.] The reason it is even that high is that we have to maintain significant (for us, peanuts by big contractor standards) overhead despite having only one or two missions in some years.

I'll note that the mission price includes the cost of the Dragon capsule. NASA wants them to use a new one each time.

Here's an update on development at Orbital Sciences of the Taurus II/Cygnus system for cargo delivery to the ISS: New Private Space Freighter Has Solid Backing - SPACE.com.

Tests in Russia of the engines intended for the first stage for the Orbital Sciences Taurus II vehicle, which will be used for cargo deliveries to the ISS, were completed successfully: Orbital and Aerojet Complete Main Engine Lifetime Testing for Taurus II Space Launch Vehicle - Russian Tests of Heritage NK-33 Rocket Engine Confirm Performance and Durability - Engine Completes Two Times Normal Firing Duration of a Taurus II Launch Profile - Orbital Sciences.
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Robert Block reports on the SpaceX Falcon 9 firing test: That SpaceX Falcon 9 hot fire: the movie - The Write Stuff/Orlando Sentinel.

Rob Coppinger posts some additional info on the extra $300M requested in the 2011 NASA budget for the COTS program: NASA responds to $300 million COTS question - Hyperbola.
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An article about the Orbital Sciences Taurus II, which is being funded with COTS money, and its use of the Wallops Island launch facility: $1.9B rocket project readied - delmarvanow.com (via spacetoday.net).

This article provides more info about the extra $300M for the COTS program that was first mentioned when the NASA budget was unveiled on Feb. 1st: NASA Raises Bet on Commercial Cargo - SpaceNews.com.

Rob Coppinger discussed this extra COTS funding earlier and suggested that it be considered an effective overrun. However, that's still not apparent from the Space News article. COTS uses fixed-price contracts with payments dependent on milestone completion. According to the Space New article, NASA says

the additional cargo funds are intended to pay for more tests and demonstration flights by the two COTS providers, Orbital and SpaceX.

The goal is to reduce the technical risks and accelerated the timeline.

“The money would be used to pursue additional efforts that would help assure the earliest availability of cargo service and reduce risks associated with maintaining the availability of those services,” [Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center] said, adding that the money would go directly to SpaceX and Orbital “or perhaps the launch site or test facilities.”

These extra flights would also be paid as were the original COTS demos:

Lindenmoyer said new money going directly to either of NASA’s commercial partners would be paid after completion of agreed-upon efforts — the same arrangement that governs COTS milestone payments.

So if NASA is paying for additional flights, then its not a failure of the companies to achieve the original agreement. Also, the firms are paying for preparations for these extra flights and won't be paid back until they are completed.

On the other hand, it's not clear to me why, after the 3rd demo flight, SpaceX couldn't just proceed with the first flight as agreed to in the Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) contract. My guess is that the extra money is there in case SpaceX and Orbital have launch failures or serious problems (e.g. a capsule reaches a lower orbit than intended) and they need extra demo flight(s) to show that they have fixed the problems. This would be similar to the way SpaceX fixed Falcon I design flaws that were revealed in its initial flights.

NASA absolutely needs cargo resupply for the ISS after the Shuttle shutdown and this is essentially insurance money to make sure they have at least one supplier ready as soon as possible.
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SpaceX has completed all COTS milestones except the 3 demo flights. The original COTS contract (pdf) set the first demo for Sept 2008. The agreement was renegotiated in early 2008 (jpg) and the Demo 1 Launch target was set for June 2009. The first COTS demo flight will take place after the very first flight, currently set for March.

Here is the Orbital Sciences COTS schedule. I forgot that they only have one demo flight. The Space News article indicates that NASA may now want more than one and some of the additional money would pay for these extra demos.

More details are coming out about the CCDev awards:
/-- NASA selects winners of first commercial crew contest - Spaceflight Now
/-- Biggest CCDev Award Goes to Sierra Nevada - SpaceNews.com

Now we know what the ULA proposal is about:

Michael Gass, ULA CEO, told Spaceflight Now on Monday his company would spend its $6.7 million to help pay for an emergency detection system to sniff out imminent failures on its Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets.

The emergency detection system would warn of problems in time to execute an abort if crews were riding aboard the rocket. Developing the EDS is the "first step in human-rating our already flight-proven vehicles," Gass said.

"With human spaceflight, the most important thing you have to do to be able to have a potential loss of mission, but not lose the crew, is having a safe abort scenario," Gass said in an interview Monday.

The EDS would consist of an electronics box to monitor several dozen parameters for signs of anomalies.

"The biggest value of this new opportunity is being able to synergize our national security business with this NASA commercial crew opportunity," Gass said.

A couple of people have sent me a copy of this document, which has apparently also been posted on a NASASpaceflight.com forum: Selection Statement for Commercial Crew Development (pdf).

It describes the grading and selection from 36 entrants vying for portions of the $50M allocated from NASA's federal economic stimulus funding for technology development related to commercial crew launch systems.

As announced on Monday, five firms were selected by the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program :
/-- Blue Origin - $3.7M
/-- Boeing - $18M
/-- Paragon Space Development Corp. - $1.44M
/-- Sierra Nevada Corp. - $20M
/-- ULA - $6.7M

See Alan Boyle's discussion of the companies in his article mentioned in the previous post.

The selection statement is deliberately vague about the details of the proposals but some hints are there. It seems clear, for example, that Sierra Nevada's entry deals with lifting body issues related to the DreamChaser project of its subsidiary SpaceDev. The Blue Origin proposal deals with "a pusher escape system", which probably is intended for the crew capsule portion of its suborbital launcher (the Blue Origin research page describes how the capsule separates from the propulsion module for a parachute return). Presumably Paragon is getting support for development of life support systems for crew vehicles. The ULA proposal deals in some way with enhancing the Atlas V/Delta IV vehicles for crew transportation. Though Boeing and Bigelow had separate proposals, the Boeing entry seems related to its teaming with Bigelow. Perhaps they are working on the Orion-Lite design.

More about the CCDev awards announced today:
/-- NASA Selects Commercial Firms to Begin Development of Crew Transportation Concepts and Technology Demonstrations for Human Spaceflight Using Recovery Act Funds - NASA
/-- Biggest CCDev Award Goes to Sierra Nevada - SpaceNews.com

Via this post by Jack Kennedy comes a pointer to the Orbital Sciences Taurus II site, which includes the latest on progress in development of the system.

ATK ground tests the Castor 30 solid fuel rocket motor intended for the second stage of Orbital Science's Taurus II rocket, which will be used for Orbital's ISS cargo delivery system :
/-- Engine for Orbital Science's Taurus Rocket Successfully Tested - Parabolic Arc
/-- ATK tests new rocket motor at Arnold Air Force Base - The Huntsville Times

Here's an update on NASA's COTS and CCDev programs: Commercial ISS Transport Taking Shape - Aviation Week.

Points of interest include:
/-- The recipients of the $50M CCDev money may be announced this week.
/-- The first stage for the Falcon 9 that is expected to launch early next year arrived at the Cape on Nov. 24th.
/-- SpaceX needs $100M for a launch escape system for a crew capable system.
/-- "SpaceX is leaning toward a liquid-fuel rocket" for the LES but hasn't decided which way to go.
/-- Elon Musk says,

. “We’ve designed Falcon 9 and our Dragon spacecraft to meet all of the published NASA human-rating standards—in fact to meet the older, more difficult human-rating standards, not the newer, easier human-rating standards—but one system that isn’t there is the launch escape system. This is obviously a very important part. It’s the one that drives the development timeframe.”

/-- Orbital "is not pushing as hard to human-rate its Cygnus".
/-- Orbital will begin acceptance testing of the first stage engines early next year
/-- "Cygnus [capsule] is in critical design review, with manufacturing set to begin next year as well."

A press release from SpaceX:

SpaceX Hosts Preliminary Training For NASA ISS Astronauts In Preparation For Dragon Spacecraft Rendezvous And Station Berthing

Hawthorne, CA (December 3, 2009) – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) recently conducted its first Dragon spacecraft operations training for a group of NASA astronauts and personnel at its corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, CA. The October training focused on how the crew will interface with the Dragon spacecraft while it is approaching and berthed to the International Space Station (ISS). Three of the participating astronauts—Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelock—will be on board the ISS when Dragon makes its first visit under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

The astronauts were briefed on vehicle ingress and egress, habitability of the spacecraft, payload handling and commanding through SpaceX's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Communication Unit. The training was a key step in SpaceX's progress towards providing NASA an alternative for cargo transport to and from the ISS when the Space Shuttle retires.

"This was the first time the NASA astronauts who will interact with Dragon during its early missions were actually inside a Dragon flight vehicle" said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO, SpaceX. "SpaceX was honored to host the ISS crew for this preliminary training exercise, and we look forward to serving NASA further under the COTS program and CRS contracts."

Also in attendance were NASA astronauts Marsha Ivins and Megan McArthur, as well as other key NASA personnel from the NASA Astronaut Office and Mission Operations Directorates.

Under the COTS program, SpaceX will execute three flights of the Dragon spacecraft. Dragon will pass in close proximity to, and berth with, the ISS as part of the second and third COTS missions, respectively. Upon completion of these demonstration flights, SpaceX will begin to fulfill the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract for 12 cargo flights between 2010 and 2015 and represents a guaranteed minimum of 20,000 kg to be carried to the ISS.

For more information about the Falcon family of vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft, please visit www.SpaceX.com

# # #
Photo Link: http://www.spacex.com/assets/img/Inside_C1_Elon_Astronauts.png
Photo Caption: ISS Expedition 23 Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson inside SpaceX's Dragon Spacecraft with SpaceX's CEO and CTO, Elon Musk

Photo Link: http://www.spacex.com/assets/img/At_C2_Elon_Astronauts.png
Photo Caption: NASA Astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Douglas Wheelock, Megan McArthur and Shannon Walker with SpaceX's CEO and CTO, Elon Musk

Additional articles about the Bigelow Aerospace/Boeing commercial crew transport partnership mentioned earlier:
/-- Boeing throws its hat into the commercial space ring - Orlando Sentinel
/-- Boeing bids for NASA space taxi program - Reuters
/-- Big And Small Companies Vie For NASA Commercial Crew Contract - WSJ (via spacetoday.net)

This Interested-Parties file (MS DOC) as of September 4th on the CCDev website has an awful lot of companies listed, all after a portion of the $50M currently allocated to the program.

Bigelow has been working with Lockheed Martin on a system for transport of passengers and cargo services to and from their habitats (e.g. see this Feb. 5, 2008 press release), but now Bigelow is teaming up with Boeing to participate in NASA's CCDev program:
/-- Commercial crew: Boeing and Bigelow team up - Hyperbola
/-- Boeing Submits Proposal for NASA Commercial Crew Transport System - Boeing

Ferris Valyn discusses the Washington Post editorial with the endorsement of the commercial spaceflight option: WaPo endorses democratizing spaceflight - Daily Kos: State of the Nation - Sept.1.09.
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Rob Coppinger discusses what might happen to the small ($50M) Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program if the President rejects any commercial transport for crews to the ISS: Can commercial firms win with NASA? - Flight Global. That scenario seems unlikely since, based on the expected NASA budget, the Augustine panel has shown that commercial involvement is no longer an option but a requirement if the human spaceflight program is to go anywhere at all. I expect CCDev will be drastically modified or replaced if the panel's suggestion of a commercial crew transport services competition is accepted.
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Rand Simberg comments on statements from a NASA manager that adapting the Orion capsule to another launcher, i.e. a Delta IV or Atlas V, would require an extra couple of years to the development program: More Road Apples From NASA - Transterrestrial Musings.

John Kelly writes about the EELV program and the possibility they will take over tasks of the Ares rockets: Using existing rockets could save taxpayers cash - The Flame Trench/Florida Today

Here is a pamphlet (pdf) on the ULA Launch site about Commercial Human Spaceflight with the Atlas V.

There is also EELV Considerations - Briefing to the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee - June.17.09 (pdf)

Eric Berger interviews Mark Sirangelo of SpaceDev/Sierra Nevada Corporation and Larry Williams of SpaceX about the Augustine panel's likely recommendation that NASA should use commercial launchers to take crews to LEO: The commercial perspective on human spaceflight - Houston Chronicle - Aug.18.09 (via spacetoday.net).