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French startup gets another space station cargo contract

The French startup The Exploration Company has gotten its fourth contract for its proposed Nyx unmanned reusable cargo capsule, signing a deal with Vast to fly one freighter mission to its proposed second Haven station.

This startup, which has not yet flown anything, already had contracts to fly one cargo mission to ISS (a demo mission for the European Space Agency), one to Axiom’s space station, and three to Voyager Space’s Starlab station. This new contract means The Exploration Company already has a manifest of six missions.

These contracts pose a puzzle. Why is this startup getting all these deals, but not Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus or SpaceX’s Dragon capsules? Or have these two American companies signed deals without the same PR splash?

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Richard M

    These contracts pose a puzzle. Why is this startup getting all these deals, but not Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus or SpaceX’s Dragon capsules? Or have these two American companies signed deals without the same PR splash?

    The ESA contract is not hard to guess. They want to bootstrap their own startup(s), just like NASA did with COTS.

    The other two…I cannot help but wonder if there was an unpublicized quid pro quo. Axiom and Vast are no doubt keen to land some business from ESA on their stations when the time comes, and perhaps agreeing to a Nyx cargo mission is one of the things they offered to get ESA to sign agreements.

    Obviously, both stations will require a lot more in the way of resupply, so the rubber will hit the road when those have to start being lined up. And yes, it could be the case that discussions have already been happening with SpaceX, Northrop, and even Sierra.

  • Starship is the wildcard in this. If The Exploration Company has launched nothing, it’s a good bet that Starship will be up and running by the time they do – even if it takes years.

    I can see a market for small satellite launches lasting beyond Starship, but cargo to a space station? Not so much. Why send dribs and drabs when you can send everything, including the kitchen sink, in one Starship launch?

    I don’t see Dragon lasting beyond the ISS. It’s just too small. Why bother?

  • Edward

    Mark Sizer asked: “I can see a market for small satellite launches lasting beyond Starship, but cargo to a space station? Not so much. Why send dribs and drabs when you can send everything, including the kitchen sink, in one Starship launch?

    For one, “everything” may be too much. There is a lot of capacity on Starship, and there may not be that much volume on board this third generation of space stations. It is kind of like doing a year’s worth of shopping in one trip; do you have the pantry and refrigerator space for all the groceries, and do you have space for all the supplies for next year’s various projects?

    Another possible problem is handling the mass and moment of inertia of Starship could be overwhelming for the control systems of these space stations. A brief stay for Starship may not be too much for these control systems, but it could be bad for a long stay.

    There could be some significant stresses induced during a Starship docking, being a good ten times more mass than a Dragon, Cygnus, or Nyx. Are they designed to handle these stresses?
    _______________
    Robert asked: “These contracts pose a puzzle. Why is this startup getting all these deals, but not Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus or SpaceX’s Dragon capsules? Or have these two American companies signed deals without the same PR splash?

    My first guess is that Cygnus and especially Dragon do not necessarily need a lot of lead time from contract to launch. Dragons are just sitting around waiting for next flight, and Cygnus is established enough that it may not need a long lead time to manufacture.

    My second guess is that new NewSpace companies need more assurance for their investors, and companies that expect to use them need to make these deals early, before investors can get spooked. If these space station companies expect to use these new cargo companies, they need to assure the investors that their investments will pay off.

    As I recall, SpaceX does not plan to make more Dragons (manned or otherwise), so they seem to expect new companies to take over this market, allowing SpaceX to venture into even newer markets.

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