I just got a press release from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The big news is that Boeing has finally joined:
The Boeing Company: Boeing Space Exploration division, headquartered in Houston, is at the forefront of development of new spacecraft systems, as it has been since the beginning of the Space Age. For more than 50 years, Boeing has designed, developed, built, and operated human and robotic space vehicles as well as supporting hardware: from the X-15 to Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), Commercial Crew Development and the Space Launch System. NASA’s Commercial Crew initiative is providing a unique opportunity for Boeing to accelerate development of its Commercial Crew Transportation System (CCTS) that will provide a domestic capability for crew to access the International Space Station.
“We are proud to join the Commercial Space Federation and help support the stimulation of this exciting new market”, said John Mulholland, Vice President and Program Manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program. “We believe that our unique combination of commercial aviation and legacy human spaceflight experience will be beneficial to the community as we move forward.”
Paragon Space Development Corporation: Paragon is the premier provider of environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments. Paragon SDC designs, builds, tests and operates premier life support systems and leading thermal control products for astronauts, contaminated water divers, and other extreme environment explorers, as well as for unmanned space and terrestrial applications.
Joining as Associate Members are:
Firestar Technologies: Firestar Technologies is a research and development company funded through both government grants and private investment. The firm has a rich intellectual property portfolio including NOFBXTM “green” propulsion, SonicExhaustTM aftermarket exhaust technology, and several developments in power conversion and next generation renewable energy technologies.
Golden Spike Company: Golden Spike plans to provide complete, turn-key commercial human lunar expeditions to countries, corporations, and individuals. The company is conducting lunar architecture and systems design studies with leading aerospace companies, and will be taking flight reservations and entering into vehicle development and flight contracts in the near future.
Spaceflight Services: Spaceflight is a one-stop shop that rapidly manifests, certifies and integrates secondary payloads on a suite of established and emerging launch and space transportation vehicles. Published commercial pricing reduces project planning and budgeting risks, and having a single point of contact simplifies integration efforts by enabling customers to plan to standardized processes while retaining access to multiple launch opportunities. Spaceflight has launch contracts to fly secondary payloads on several launch vehicles.
That’s funny, I had thought that Paragon was already on board. Perhaps they just upgraded?
It always bothers me when a company that simply bought other companies claims title to the latters’ pre-buyout achievements. Boeing is the top offender in this. To listen to them, they built the Saturn V first and third stages, all of the Saturn V engines, and the SSME’s (despite having sold Rocketdyne). They did, indeed, build “supporting hardware” for the X-15. It’s called the B-52 bomber. (North American Aviation built the X-15, but I don’t know if Boeing claims that) But the rest of it is stuff that other companies built, and ceased building, long before Boeing bought them…and in some cases sold them, as in Rocketdyne to P&W.
“It always bothers me when a company that simply bought other companies claims title to the latters’ pre-buyout achievements.”
Why? Where do you think those achievements reside? Who owns the intellectual property?
McDonnell, Douglas, North American, Hughes, Vertol, and others are now a part of Boeing. They certainly have the right to claim they built the things they built, and those things include the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules, the space shuttle orbiters, and the Skylab and ISS space stations.