CEV Competition Will Come Down To Cost, Northrop Says

Posted on: Oct. 13th, 2005 || Source: aviationnow.ecnext.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

CEV Competition Will Come Down To Cost, Northrop Says

With NASA dictating most elements of the design for its Crew Exploration Vehicle, the crux of the industry competition to build the vehicle will be the price tag and production efficiencies proposed by each team, according to Doug Young, Northrop Grumman's CEV program manager.

"Clearly it's all going to come down to cost," Young said Oct. 12. "The customer has been very clear in terms of where they want to go with the general approach, so it's going to really ultimately evolve into getting those cost numbers down to the bare minimum in order to achieve mission success."

The Northrop Grumman/Boeing team is competing with a team led by Lockheed Martin to develop the CEV, which NASA plans to begin flying by 2011 or 2012. Before the end of this month, NASA is expected to release a call for improvements asking for contractors to tweak their CEV proposals.

Young doesn't expect to see many surprises in the CFI, he told The DAILY. NASA will be asking for detailed cost, schedule and design goals for achieving CEV operations, he said.

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