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NASA awards $212.5M space contract to local company [North County Times, Escondido, Calif.](North County Times (Escondido, CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 04--NASA awarded $1.1 billion in contracts Friday for what could be the next step in manned spaceflight: development of a full-fledged private space industry. Of that total, $212.5 million will go to a company with offices in Poway and a long history of enabling space flight, adding engineering jobs to the area. NASA is providing seed money to three companies to compete with each other and create a new private space race. With the space shuttle fleet retired, the U.S. has no way to travel to the International Space Station other than shelling out $63 million for rides on a Russian Soyuz rocket. Funding through NASA's Commercial Crew Development program is meant to "bring human spaceflight launches back to U.S. soil and end outsourcing of these important jobs," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Friday. Winners included Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., which purchased Poway-based SpaceDev Inc. in 2008. The privately held company -- not to be confused with the eponymous beer or mountain range in Northern California -- kept SpaceDev's Poway location and continued development of a SpaceDev craft that closely resembles a mini-space shuttle, called the Dream Chaser. Sierra Nevada says it plans to get people in space as early as 2016. The two other winners are Hawthorne-based rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, which got $440 million; and Boeing Co., which got $460 million. Boeing develops spacecraft in Huntington Beach, and uses rocket engines made by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in Canoga Park. NASA has been trying to spur private space flight for several years. In 2006, it announced $500 million in grants as seed money for the purpose. Workforce boost As a result of winning the NASA contract, Sierra Nevada will increase its Poway workforce of about 70 by 10 to 15 percent, said Mark Sirangelo, the company's corporate vice president and a SpaceDev veteran. Companywide, Sierra Nevada employs about 2,200, and bills itself as the top female-owned federal contractor. It's owned by Eren Ozmen, chairman and president, and her husband, Fatih Ozmen, the CEO. The Ozmens bought the company in 1994, according to its website. "We do a lot of our engineering still in San Diego," Sirangelo said. "It's an important center for us." The company will add specialists in engineering, design and systems integration to develop the Dream Chaser's rocket motor, he said. SpaceDev provided the rocket motor that in 2004 helped SpaceShipOne win the $10 million Ansari X-Prize for the first private craft to reach space. Sirangelo said NASA will serve as the "anchor tenant" for the company's space business. "We can do a lot of scientific work in space with this vehicle, where we can test things for an extended period of time," he said. "We can do servicing, where we go out and fix things, much like the shuttle fixed the Hubble (Space) Telescope." The telescope was launched with an optical flaw that made it nearly useless. A shuttle mission retrofitted the telescope with corrective equipment that made it function as intended. The company may also enter the space tourism business, Sirangelo said. SpaceDev made quite a name for itself as a scrappy competitor while it was an independent company. Besides work on SpaceShipOne, it accomplished such feats as making very small satellites, called nanosatellites. The company lost its founder, Jim Benson, in October 2008, when he died of brain cancer. Benson had resigned his operational role by then to take part in another venture, but he remained on SpaceDev's board. Later that month, SpaceDev announced it had agreed to be acquired for $38 million by Sierra Nevada. SpaceX was first Of the winners, SpaceX is the only company whose contender is spaceflight-proven. In May, SpaceX became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and have it dock with the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule was only carrying supplies at the time, but it was a technological and financial feat, previously accomplished only by the world's most powerful government entities. The Dragon capsule is designed to carry seven astronauts, but SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said it still needed upgrades before an astronaut could strap in. The company is aiming for a manned test flight by 2015. SpaceX will use its new NASA contract to develop its hardware. The space agency has also awarded the company a $1.6 billion contract to have SpaceX's Dragon deliver cargo to the space station -- with trips possibly starting later this year. In May, Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser was taken on a "captive carry" test flight to examine its aerodynamic properties. It didn't fly on its own, but was taken aloft and carried by a cable. An approach and landing test with the Dream Chaser flying on its own is planned later this summer at Edwards Air Force Base. Wire services contributed to this article. Call staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at 760-739-6641. ___ (c)2012 the North County Times (Escondido, Calif.) Visit the North County Times (Escondido, Calif.) at www.nctimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |