NASA Commercial Spaceflight Status Briefing to the AIA Space Council June 16, 2011

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Why Commercial Crew and Why Now?

1) Federal budgets, including NASA’s, are extremely constrained
– COTS and CCDev have shown that we can change the cost equation
– We hope to fund multiple partners for less than $6B

2) Well understood technology
– Human spaceflight is hard, but no breakthroughs are needed
– We have been launching people into orbit for over 45 years

3) Strong and mature industrial base
– Global commercial space industry revenues have doubled from $80B to $160B during the last five years

4) Strong potential for customers other than the U.S. government
– Non-U.S. astronauts, space tourism, research and development

5) Decision to extend the International Space Station to at least 2020
– For the first time in history, we have a long -term, sustainable market for commercial human space transportation services