Boeing & Bigelow join for CCDev

[docm]

One of Boeing's CEV concepts was an Orion style capsule with a habitat stuck on the nose. See below.

Hmmm......Sundancer or something a bit smaller? Enough for sleeping berths, a hardened shelter, galley and a porta-potty with room for a lander on the other end?

Orlando Sentinel link....

Boeing press release.....

Boeing throws its hat into the commercial space ring

posted by Robert Block on Sep 23, 2009 3:37:12 PM

Undaunted by Congressional skeptics of commercial space ventures, aerospace heavyweight Boeing Co. submitted a proposal Tuesday to NASA requesting the agency to speed up development of commercial human spaceflight capabilities.

The company said in a press release that the company has joined a total of four teams of commercial space ventures vying for a share of $50 million of Recovery Act funds given to NASA to develop technologies and processes so that commercial rocket companies can begin transporting astronauts to orbit.
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Boeing already has a capsule design that it has proposed to NASA before.

According to the press release, one of the projects has Boeing joining forces with Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, which has created self-expanding space modules that can be used as labs or hotels in orbit. The plan would be to design a system that could take crew and cargo to Bigelow’s facilities or even the international space station, Memi said in an email.

“We are planning to initiate the basic overall system definition and design as well as perform some subsystem demonstration testing such as life support, avionics and landing systems,” he added.
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[access]

Great CC dev is definitely becoming very interesting, sadly SpaceX is likely to run away with it.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Great CC dev is definitely becoming very interesting, sadly SpaceX is likely to run away with it.

While I'm a SpaceX "Fanboy" of the deepest dye, I can honestly say I don't want to see that happen. We (mankind, Planet Earth, blah blah blah) need multiple entities working on LEO access. The Boeing/Bigelow joint venture is one of those that stands an excellent chance of succeeding & needs to be funded right along with SpaceX.