Jun 18 2007
From The Space Library
NASA announced that it had signed three unfunded agreements with three private firms, according to the terms of the Space Act of 1958, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2451 et seq.). The Space Act, aimed at helping to establish a robust commercial space industry, authorized companies to dedicate private funds to NASA projects. The new agreements brought the number of private companies cooperating with NASA to five. According to the new non-reimbursable Space Act agreements with Constellations Services International (CSI), SpaceDev, and Spacehab, NASA pledged to provide the three firms with up-to-date technical requirements and specifications for crew and cargo flights to the ISS, while the firms developed and demonstrated the vehicles, systems, and operations needed to transport cargo to and from a low-Earth-orbit destination. Additionally, SpaceDev would develop the vehicles, systems, and operations needed for crew transport. NASA hoped that the agreements would stimulate commercial enterprises in space, facilitate U.S. private industry’s development of reliable, cost-effective access to low Earth orbit, and create a market environment in which private firms could make commercial spacetransportation services available to government and private customers. CSI President Charles Miller pointed out the benefit of NASA’s providing technical assistance instead of monetary funding and remarked that the agreements represented a statement of the federal government’s confidence in the fundamentals of private-sector cargo systems.
NASA, “NASA Signs Commercial Space Transportation Agreements,” news release 07-138, 18 June 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07138_COTS_3_Unfunded_SAAs.html (accessed 13 April 2010); Brian Berger, “NASA Signs Space Act Agreements with Three More Firms,” Space News, 19 June 2007.
NASA announced that it had tested the first nanotechnology-based electronic device to fly in space—the Nano ChemSensor Unit—demonstrating that the device known as a nanosensor could monitor trace gases inside a spacecraft. NASA had launched the device into orbit on 9 March 2007 as a secondary payload experiment on board the U.S. Naval Academy’s MidSTAR- 1 satellite. Scientists had conducted the sensor test on 24 May, successfully showing that the nanosensors could survive in space conditions, as well as in the extreme vibrations and gravity changes that occur during launch.
NASA, “NASA Nanotechnology Space Sensor Test Successful in Orbit,” news release 07-140, 18 June 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/HQ_07140_Nanotech_Sensor_Test.html (accessed 13 April 2010); United Press International, “NASA Nanotechnology Tested in Orbit,” 19 June 2007.
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