Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)/
Commercial Resupply Service (CRS)
Orbital and NASA are expanding their collaboration to jointly develop a new space transportation system. With the award of the Commercial Resupply Service Contract, NASA has taken the next step to ensure a robust logistic capability for the International Space Station (ISS).
Orbital and NASA have been jointly developing a new space transportation system in the COTS cooperative program to demonstrate the capability to provide logistics to the International Space Station (ISS). The COTS program will involve full-scale development and flight demonstration of a commercial cargo delivery system. The COTS demonstration mission is scheduled to take place in the first half of 2012. The COTS system consists of:
Antares™, a new medium-class launch vehicle being developed by Orbital
Cygnus, an advanced maneuvering spacecraft, and
Pressurized modules to transport cargo to ISS.
Under the Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) program, Orbital will provide 8 pressurized cargo missions to the ISS beginning in 2012 and running through 2015. For NASA, CRS will provide a U.S.-produced and-operated automated cargo delivery service for ISS logistics support, to complement Russian, European and Japanese ISS cargo vehicles. For CRS, Orbital will utilize its Antares, Cygnus, and a Pressurized Cargo Module developed by Orbital’s industrial partner Thales Alenia Space.
Orbital will carry out design, manufacturing and test of the new Antares launch vehicle in Dulles, VA and Chandler, AZ; the company’s development, production and integration of its Cygnus spacecraft and cargo modules will be done in Dulles VA and the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. COTS/CRS launches are planned at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility with integrated mission operations conducted from control centers in Dulles and Houston.
The Antares launch vehicle will have a payload capacity of 5,000 kg to low-Earth orbit. The Cygnus spacecraft will be capable of delivering up to 2,700 kg of pressurized cargo to the ISS.
