Conference 7.286::space

637.0. "Commercial Experiment Transporter planned" by 4347::GRIFFIN (Dave Griffin) Fri Jun 15 1990 20:09

Barbara Selby
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                      June 14, 1990
(Phone:  202/453-2927)

Andes Hoyt
Center for Advanced Space Propulsion, Tullahoma, Tenn.
(Phone:  615/454-9294)


RELEASE:  90-83

COMMERCIAL EXPERIMENT TRANSPORTER PLANNED


     The National Aeronautics and Space Administration today 
announced support for plans to develop a system for launching and 
recovering commercial spaceborne experiments.
 
     Sponsored by NASA's Office of Commercial Programs, the 
objective of the Commercial Experiment Transporter (COMET) 
program is to develop both hardware and infrastructure to 
facilitate the commercial development of space by the
United States.  NASA's Centers for the Commercial Development of 
Space (CCDS) initiated the program and will be totally 
responsible for system design, fabrication, test and operations 
in which industry will be encouraged to be innovative.
 
     "Proceeding with this innovative concept represents another 
significant step in the commercial development of space," said 
James T. Rose, NASA Assistant Administrator for Commercial 
Programs.  "The COMET program will help provide the access to 
space that is critical in meeting industry's needs."

     Carried aloft by an expendable launch vehicle, the COMET 
free-flyer will contain both a service module and a recovery 
system.  The two components will separate prior to reentering the 
atmosphere so that most experiments will be returned to Earth in 
the recovery system, while others not requiring retrieval, could 
continue their mission aboard the service module. 

     There are six major elements to the COMET program: launch 
vehicle and services, payload integration, the service module, 
orbital operations, recovery system and services, and systems 
engineering.  Contractors will be expected to provide key 
hardware and services for each segment of COMET development and 
operations.
 
     The COMET program plans call for a mid-1992 launch of a 
free-flyer, weighing up to 1,800 pounds, into an equatorial orbit 
with an inclination of about 40 degrees.  Commercial experiments 
and processes to be returned to Earth will be carried out during 
a nominal 30-day mission, while non-recoverable payloads can 
remain on orbit in the service module for a year or longer.  
Completion of the second phase of flight will result in reentry 
of the recovery system and its payload at a site within the 
continental United States.  Specific launch and recovery 
locations have not been defined since industry will be allowed to 
propose the most cost-efficient method to meet mission 
requirements.
 
     Launching the COMET on expendable rockets offers 
experimenters flexibility in selecting orbital parameters which 
are different from those of the Space Shuttle.  Additionally, the 
free-flyer will stay in orbit longer and can carry industrial 
research materials that could be hazardous to the Shuttle
and its crew.
 
     The lead CCDS, the Center for Advanced Space Propulsion 
(CASP) located at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, 
Tullahoma, will be responsible for program management and systems 
engineering.  Other participating CCDSs include:
 
     - Center for Macromolecular Crystallography, University of 
Alabama-Birmingham (payload integration);
 
     - BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado, 
Boulder (recovery system);
 
     - Center for Space Power, Texas A&M University, College 
Station (service module);
 
     - Consortium for Materials Development in Space, University 
of Alabama-Huntsville (expendable launch vehicle); and
 
     - Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston 
(orbital operations).

      The CCDS team, through CASP, will prepare statements of 
work, evaluate proposals and, upon contractor selection, provide 
technical observation and contract monitoring.  The University of 
Tennessee-Calspan Center for Aerospace Research, the legal entity 
for CASP, will issue a request for proposals this summer. Joseph 
F. Pawlick Jr., CASP, is the COMET program manager.


From: [email protected] (Peter E. Yee)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Date: 14 Jun 90 20:32:23 GMT
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

"An equatorial orbit inclined at 40 degrees"?  Isn't that a contradiction in
terms?

Burns

Opposed to a polar orbit at 50?

- dave

From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Date: 28 Jan 91 23:15:05 GMT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

RELEASE:  91-14
 
INDUSTRY TEAM SELECTED FOR COMET COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
 
     James T. Rose, NASA Assistant Administrator for the Office 
of Commercial Programs, today announced that the University of 
Tennessee-Calspan's Center for Advanced Space Propulsion (CASP), 
Tullahoma, has selected three industrial firms for establishing 
launch and recovery of the unmanned, Earth-orbital Commercial 
Experiment Transporter (COMET) space system.
 
     Joe Pawlick, Assistant Director for Commercial 
Transportation and COMET Program Manager at CASP, said "We're 
taking the initial step toward establishing an entirely new U.S. 
industry.  When successful, Centers for the Commercial 
Development of Space (CCDS) payloads and those of their 
industrial partners will be placed into and returned from the 
unique environment of space by COMET."  
 
     The contractors selected and their component 
responsibilities are:
 
        o  Space Industries, Inc. (SII), Houston,  -  payload
           integration, orbital operations and recovery system
           and services
 
        o  Space Services, Inc. (SSI), Houston, a division of EER
           Systems -  launch vehicle and services
 
        o  Westinghouse Electric Co., Millersville, Md.  -
           systems engineering and service module
 
     Upon completion of contract negotiations by CASP, such
contracts will be prepared for inclusion in the CCDS grant by
NASA who has budgeted $10.5 million in 1991 as initial funding
for COMET.  CASP is one of seven NASA CCDSs involved in the
establishment of COMET.
 
     The COMET launch vehicle will place a service module and a 
recovery system, called a freeflyer, into a 300 nautical mile 
Earth orbit at a 40-degree inclination to the Equator.  The 
1,800-pound freeflyer will be released with payloads aboard both 
the service module and recovery system.  The latter system will 
contain about 9 cubic feet of payload volume while another 6 
cubic feet will be in the non-recoverable service module.
 
     The recovery system will separate from the freeflyer after 
about a month in orbit to be retrieved at a southwest U.S. 
location.  The service module is designed to support non-
recoverable experiments for at least 100 days after the recovery 
system reenters.
 
     SSI's and SII's licensing of COMET for launch from either 
NASA's Goddard Wallops Island Flight Facility or Cape Canaveral 
will be governed by U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
regulations.
 
     CASP is responsible for COMET program management and systems
engineering.  The Center for Advanced Materials, Columbus, Ohio,
will provide screening and selection services for COMET
payloads.  The other five centers and their responsibilities are:
 
        o  BioServe Space Technologies, University of Colorado,
           Boulder  -  recovery system and services
 
        o  Center for Power, Texas A&M University, College
           Station  -  service module
 
        o  Consortium for Materials Development in Space,
           University of Alabama, Huntsville  -  launch vehicle
           and services
 
        o  Center for Macromolecular Crystallography, University
           of Alabama in Birmingham  -  payload integration
 
        o  Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston
           -  orbital operations

      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab | 
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | It's 10PM, do you know
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | where your spacecraft is?
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | We do!