[meteorite-list] NASA Announces Effort to Form New Collaborative Partnerships with Private Space Industry

[Ron Baalke]

July 17, 2013

Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington DC
202-358-1100
trent.j.perrotto at nasa.gov

Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
josh.byerly at nasa.gov 

RELEASE 13-200

NASA Announces Effort to Form New Collaborative Partnerships with Private  
Space Industry

WASHINGTON -- NASA officials Wednesday released a synopsis requesting  
information from U.S. private enterprises interested in pursuing unfunded  
partnerships. The aim is to advance the development of commercial space  
products and services.

The Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities synopsis describes a  
potential opportunity for existing and new companies and non-profit  
organizations to access NASA's spaceflight expertise for mutually beneficial  
space exploration goals.

These new partnerships are intended to help companies accelerate their  
development efforts while enabling the nation to reap economic benefits from  
previous NASA work. NASA benefits by advancing the commercial space industry.  
This is a primary goal of the National Space Policy and NASA Strategic Plan,  
which enhance the U.S. aerospace industrial base and could lead to the  
availability of cost-effective commercial products and services to support  
human space exploration.

"As we have seen with NASA's previous agreements with the private sector,  
U.S. companies could significantly benefit from the agency's extensive  
experience and knowledge in spaceflight development and operations," said  
Phil McAlister, NASA’s director for Commercial Spaceflight Development.  
"For new entrepreneurial efforts in space, NASA’s archive of lessons  
learned, technical expertise and spaceflight data is an invaluable national  
resource and engine for new economic growth."

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop and advance new  
commercial space capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion  
spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift  
rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed  
to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and  
Orion will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new  
missions of exploration in the solar system, including to an asteroid and  
Mars.

The Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities synopsis is available  
at:

http://go.nasa.gov/16Jex3j 

For more information about NASA initiatives and commercial space, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercial 

-end-