Private Supply Ships Vital for Space Vision, NASA Chief Says

Posted on: Nov. 16th, 2005 || Source: space.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

LEAGUE CITY, TX – Commercial space station cargo ships, crew ferries and other spacecraft will prove a vital cog in NASA’s engine for future space exploration, the agency’s top official said Tuesday.

“We want to be able to buy these services from American industry,” NASA chief Michael Griffin told American Astronautics Society (AAS) during its annual conference here, adding that the first space station resupply proposals are expected this fall. “It will not be government business as usual.”

Commercial cargo and crew ships to the International Space Station (ISS) are just the tip of what Griffin dubbed ‘the dawn of the true space age,’ an era which could include private fueling depots in low-Earth orbit to aid NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the Moon.

“It is exactly the type of enterprise which should be left to industry and the [commercial] marketplace,” Griffin said of the fuel depot.

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