CRS-2 An argument for a three way split bid award

CRS-2 An argument for a three way split bid award

I vote a three way split

However the contract says at least 6 or 9 launches each?(I think its 6 minimum) so that would be 18 launches from 2018 through 2024 or 6 years.

18/6 or 18/7 is around 3 flights a year so we no more than that would be ordered ,so we could have a third provider.

SNC SpaceX and Orbital !

SNC allows for down mass and a future deal use as a human crew vehicle

Orbital makes for a nice choice do to extensibility to cislunar for Orion or a gateway and a cargo missions to cislunar/L2 and it takes out the garbage for ISS and gateway(solar orbit disposal?)

Orbital to cislunar will require Vulcan and Falcon heavy! So these companies would benefit

SpaceX is dual use already in near term for human and cargo

We need a CRS-3 BAA to flush out how a commercial gateway would look like and this would add Bigelow to our menagerie of space station providers, imagine a space station of Bigelow and orbital components.The ESA could pay for the orbital components that are incorporated into Cygnus in exchange for ESA astronauts to cislunar. If ESA or JAX utilizes SNC Dream Chaser then could this be a part of a barter?

I have been arguing for some time that we need to have a common docking mechanism for Cygnus  and Spacex and SNC to dock with one another, we did years ago sign a space rescue treaty