NASA Gives Orbital Contract For Spaceship Cargo

Orlando (dbTechno) - Orbital Sciences Corp. has been awarded a contract by NASA to develop a future space cargo. This new spaceship cargo would have the ability to act as a commercial orbital, doing runs back and forth to the International Space Station.

NASA had to choose a company for the contract as their current shuttle is set to retire in the year 2010, and no replacement has been noted, until now.

The grant to Orbital is worth $170 million. They will get this grant under the Space Act Agreement as they will be using it to develop and launch the cargo.

Rick Gilbrech of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington stated “NASA plans to get out of low Earth orbit and focus on going back to the moon to prepare explorers for a future voyage to Mars. Being able to buy safe, reliable and economic services to low Earth orbit will help us achieve our national goals.”

The project in place now is called Commercial Orbital Transportation Services. It will bring crew and cargo into space, back and forth. These may be private or governmental flights.

It is expected that many private investors will add to the funding.