NASA Announces COTS Phase I Demonstration Space Act Agreement with Orbital Sciences

According to NASA’s Doug Cooke the winning proposal of the COTS-1 re-competition is worth $170 million. 13 companies competed and submitted proposals in November 2007.

Results of the review were presented to Cooke last Thursday. The Space Act Agreement will be made with Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC).

OSC is looking to develop an new medium class launch vehicle they call the Taurus II. The first stage will use LOX/Kerosine liquid fuel using Aerojet engines. ATK would develop the Castor-derived solid fueled second stage.

The COTS Visiting Vehicle would be the payload – and will have variants that can deliver pressurized cargo using a MPLM derivative developed by Alenia or unpressurized cargo using a derivative of the Express Logistics Carrier being designed and developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for use on the ISS.

The OSC proposal mentions possible crewed missions but did not formally propose that option. OSC will be using DART and Orbital Express hardware and experience in the design of their proximity and operations concepts.

OSC plans to launch the Taurus II COTS flights from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.