NASA has launched a competition to find a more affordable way to launch small satellites into space, freeing up funding for the science the spacecraft are designed to perform once in orbit.
A draft request for proposals (RFP) was issued May 7 for what NASA calls the Venture Class Launches Services (VCLS) program, which would be the smallest class of rockets used by NASA. VCLS is envisioned as a commercial launch vehicle that can affordably launch small satellites, often called CubeSats, and experiments that currently have to hitch rides into space on larger, more expensive rockets.
The RFP calls for launch systems that can host 132 pounds of CubeSats in a single launch or 66 pounds each over two launches. Plans are to award more than one contract for demonstration vehicles before the end of September, said Mark Wiese, chief of flight projects at NASA’s launch services business office at Kennedy Space Center, during a May 11 press conference.
Launch Services Programs “started this strategic initiative because we had customers looking for more affordable ways to get to space, from the traditional $100 million launch cost,” Wiese said. “They would talk to us because they had maybe $30 million and they were trying to find a way to get to space.”
Satellites used for experimentation by universities and non-profit organizations typically must piggyback on NASA’s larger rockets because they cannot afford to fund a dedicated launch, he said. But those organizations can rarely, if ever, afford to spend tens of millions of dollars to get their spacebound payloads aloft.
Hitching rides is more affordable than current dedicated launch solutions but are an inconvenient means of launching multiple small satellites in succession, said Garrett Skrobot, mission manager for the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program at Kennedy Space Center.
Skrobot said he has overseen about 36 such launches over the past four years and has a backlog of about 50 small payloads headed for a range of destinations from low earth orbit to “earth-escape” missions.
“This is a form factor that is being used not just by NASA, not just by universities, but by other government agencies to do work in space,” he said.
A final RFP should be released in June. The draft document requires that the demonstration launch take place at a time and place of each company’s choosing, but no later than April 15, 2018.
Skrobot said the plan was to “widespread” the requirements so that “as many companies could come at this and they’re all coming at it from different angles.”
The only company mentioned by name during the conference was Spaceflight Services, which “manifests, certifies, and integrates secondary payloads on a suite of established and emerging launch and space transportation vehicles,” according to the company’s website.
Skrobot said there is no requirement for the type of launch, but options exist in the commercial market that are vertical, air-launched and rail-launched.
Another company called Rocket Lab has developed its own carbon-fiber rocket called the Electron tipped with a proprietary engine called the Rutherford that boasts 4,600 pound-feet of thrust. Each costs $4.9 million, according to company literature.
“There are all sorts of things in the tradespace and we don’t want to drive that design,” he said. “We want a commercial solution and we want these companies to have a viable business case. We’re not looking to develop a solution. This isn’t a government-funded development situation.”
“We are looking to finding a more dedicated ride for some of these missions that have more complex science,” he said. “They are requiring not to be piggybacks anymore, not to go where the primary is going but to identify particular orbits where they can do scientific experiments on their own.”