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Strategic Objective
Foster the commercialization of space transportation.
Strategic Objective
Overview
Partnerships with American industry to enable U.S. commercial crew transportation to low Earth orbit will stimulate a commercial industry, promote job growth, and expand knowledge, as well as supply the ISS. NASA envisions commercial human spaceflight to low Earth orbit becoming a robust, vibrant, profit-making commercial enterprise with many providers and a wide range of private and public users. Our role in this enterprise is to provide expertise, incentives, and opportunities to the emerging human space flight industry. We will purchase transportation services to meet our International Space Station crew rotation and emergency return obligations. A vibrant, job-creating, profit-making transportation system for humans and cargo to low Earth orbit will significantly contribute to the national economy.
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Progress Update
Through the Strategic Review and NASA’s other performance management processes, NASA reviews recent accomplishments and near term plans for the Agency’s strategic objectives and programs. Under Strategic Objective 1.3, NASA is supporting the development of U.S. commercial space transportation capabilities to reduce the gap in launching crew and cargo from the United States. NASA selected two U.S. companies as Commercial Crew Transportation contract partners in September 2014 and both partners are making technical and programmatic progress. For example, in May 2015 Agency partner SpaceX conducted a test of their Dragon spacecraft launch escape capabilities, demonstrating the ability to save astronauts in the unlikely event of a life-threatening situation on the launch pad. A major recent accomplishment for Strategic Objective 1.3 is the completion of the first phase of certification efforts with NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation partners. With this accomplishment, NASA successfully achieved one of NASA’s Agency Priority Goals. Over the next several years, the Agency’s critical next steps are to monitor partner progress and milestone completion, working towards full certification including a crew flight test to the International Space Station with a NASA astronaut. Specific performance measures for the next two years can be found in NASA’s FY 2016 and FY 2017 Annual Performance Plans.
The Strategic Review also addresses long-term strategic outcomes, alignment, and key management challenges for each strategic objective, as well as across NASA’s portfolio of activities. In 10 years, NASA plans that the Agency’s current efforts under Strategic Objective 1.3 will lead to the ability to utilize U.S. commercial space transportation capabilities to provide safe, reliable, and cost effective access to and from low Earth orbit and the ISS for crew and cargo. This ability is critical for NASA’s integrated space development and exploration plans, but the NASA 2015 Strategic Review noted that the Commercial Crew Program has faced a historical disconnect between requested and appropriated funding. Funding instability can force NASA to continue the Agency’s sole reliance on Russia longer for launching its astronauts to the International Space Station.
For more information, please see http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html.Highlighted achievements during FY 2015 are detailed in the FY 2015 Agency Financial Report. Additional details on the FY 2015 performance for supporting Performance Goals and Annual Performance Indicators are provided in NASA’s FY 2015 Annual Performance Report. Information on the strategies for achieving this strategic objective can be found in the 2014 NASA Strategic Plan.
