NASA imposes new rules for any private launches to ISS
NASA has added several new rules for any private launches to ISS, now requiring that each flight include at least one experienced former NASA astronaut.
From the actual procurement notice:
NASA is also in the process of finalizing details associated with a new requirement that upcoming private astronaut missions include a former flown NASA (U.S.) government astronaut as the mission commander. A former NASA astronaut provides experienced guidance for the private astronauts during pre-flight preparation through mission execution. Based on their past on-orbit and NASA experience, the PAM commander provides a link between the resident ISS expedition crew and the private astronauts and reduces risk to ISS operations and PAM/ISS safety. Specific details of the requirement will be documented in future solicitations, as well as in updated documentation and in the solicitation technical library.
The new rules also require the companies to submit their research plans twelve months before launch, as well as reserve a longer time for the private passengers to adapt to weightlessness on the station before initiating that work.
The changes appear to make sense, based on the experience of the first passenger flight of Axiom sent up to ISS earlier this year. However, their existence will likely encourage the arrival of the private space stations in order to break free from NASA’s rules.
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.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"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
NASA has added several new rules for any private launches to ISS, now requiring that each flight include at least one experienced former NASA astronaut.
From the actual procurement notice:
NASA is also in the process of finalizing details associated with a new requirement that upcoming private astronaut missions include a former flown NASA (U.S.) government astronaut as the mission commander. A former NASA astronaut provides experienced guidance for the private astronauts during pre-flight preparation through mission execution. Based on their past on-orbit and NASA experience, the PAM commander provides a link between the resident ISS expedition crew and the private astronauts and reduces risk to ISS operations and PAM/ISS safety. Specific details of the requirement will be documented in future solicitations, as well as in updated documentation and in the solicitation technical library.
The new rules also require the companies to submit their research plans twelve months before launch, as well as reserve a longer time for the private passengers to adapt to weightlessness on the station before initiating that work.
The changes appear to make sense, based on the experience of the first passenger flight of Axiom sent up to ISS earlier this year. However, their existence will likely encourage the arrival of the private space stations in order to break free from NASA’s rules.
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.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"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
So are the PAM comanders paid by the .gov or by the private company? They aren’t paying customers but are required personnel now and from what I understand active nasa astronauts. Does nasa pay for the seat?
Sounds like The NASA Astronaut Guaranteed Retirement Income Act.
They just remember the kids on Shatner’s flight showing out and think it wise to have an RA.
I’m beginning to trust NASA just as much as I trust the rest of the US federal government. Which is to say not at all.
“How to Usurp Control of Private Enterprises with a Camel Nose”
LTC Ted – I had thought the same thing – in Russia, he was known as the commissar or zampolit
When can we have a Shuttlecraft?
From the article:
Neither of these (non)experiences indicates to me that it need be a NASA astronaut rather than hire someone who had been there before (previous passenger, cosmonaut, astronaut from another county).
Thus, NASA remains a gatekeeper for what science and what manufacturing is done on ISS. We may have to wait a long time before We the People start directly benefiting from space manufacturing.
I had been unaware that Axiom’s NASA astronaut had other duties. I thought that the entire reason for the experienced NASA astronaut was to ensure that the private experimenters/tourists did not put a burden on the NASA and Russian crews. These reactions may merely be due to poor mission planning rather than actual problems, they may be able to be solved by other means. It looks to me like NASA is imposing controls where freedom and independence may be better.
I cannot wait for the independent commercial space stations.
From the Requirements Update notice:
What horrible thing did the Axiom crew do, that previous tourists didn’t do, that warrants this?
“What horrible thing did the Axiom crew do, that previous tourists didn’t do, that warrants this?”
They left the seat up on the space toilet!
Egads, the thoughtless monsters!
pawn answered: “They left the seat up on the space toilet!”
I hate when that happens.