NewScientist.com news service
David Shiga
NASA is set to announce a new commercial partner that will try to develop a spaceship to service the International Space Station. The new partnership is possible because the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has officially upheld NASA’s decision to sever a previous partnership with aerospace company Rocketplane Kistler.With the space shuttle set to retire in 2010, NASA is looking for alternative ways to transport astronauts and supplies to the space station. NASA’s own shuttle replacement – the Orion spacecraft and Ares I rocket – is not expected to be ready until at least 2015.In 2006, NASA signed agreements earmarking $485 million to be split between two companies trying to develop vehicles to service the orbital outpost. As part of its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme, it set aside $278 million for SpaceX, based in El Segundo, California, and $207 million for Rocketplane Kistler of Oklahoma City, both in the US.The money was to be gradually doled out between 2006 and 2010 – as long as the two companies kept meeting performance milestones along the way. But after Rocketplane Kistler failed to raise a required $500 million in private financing, NASA cancelled its agreement with the company in October 2007.
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