Last shuttle Atlantis launch End to NASA 'space jobs'?

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden flanked by Space Exploration Technologies President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Gwynne Shotwell and Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Executive Vice-President and General Manager Frank Culbertson along with several other NASA officials hosted a news conference on Wednesday Nov. 13 to discuss the closing of the space agency’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

With opening comments starting at 11:30 a.m. EST, the trio were joined by Alan Lindenmoyer, the head of NASA’s Commercial Program, Phil McAlister, the director of Commercial Spaceflight Development with NASA and Frank Slazer the vice-president of Space Systems, Aerospace Industries Association.

“More than two years ago at the end of the space shuttle program two American companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation began work to restore the US’ capabilities in terms of delivering and returning experiments and supplies to the International Space Station, and in so doing – decrease our reliance on foreign launch service providers,” Bolden said during opening remarks at the conference. “Their successes mark the conclusion of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services or “COTS” program. They are now clear to begun providing regular transportation services to the ISS.”

Those watching NASA Television were probably a little confused as the space agency had listed the news conference as “Completion of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program.” Given that commercial crew has yet to launch an astronaut and that commercial cargo is still ongoing under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract – it was unclear why the


COTS was incredibly successful with two separate launch vehicles and spacecraft being developed under this initiative. It also served to return the capability of launching cargo from U.S. soil, something which has been lacking since the last space shuttle mission, STS-135 on space shuttle Atlantis, concluded in 2011. COTS was never planned to be a program in which new technologies were to be tested. Rather, it was one designed to validate designs that could replace a portion of the shuttles’ up mass (the amount of cargo delivered to orbit) capabilities.

“We weren’t looking at developing new technology under this program, rather we were looking at utilizing existing technology and I think that COTS has shown that this model works very well,” Lindenmoyer said. “What we’ve shown with COTS is that, while this isn’t the right model to do everything we do at NASA, it certainly is a model that works. I think we made the right choice!’


Orbital’s Frank Culbertson also revealed the name of the next Cygnus spacecraft which will fly to the International Space Station – the C. Gordon Fullerton. That mission is currently slated to launch on Dec. 8, 2013. Fullerton, like Low, was a shuttle astronaut, he piloted the B-52 Stratofortress which deployed a Pegasus rocket in 1991. Fullerton passed away in August of this year.Today’s conference also served as an awards ceremony of sorts with Lindenmoyer, Shotwell and Culbertson each receiving NASA Group Achievement Awards on behalf of the teams/companies that they represent. They were presented with these awards from for their efforts on NASA’s commercial programs.