Orbital's Winning COTS Bid Includes Russian, Italian Hardware

摘要

NASA has agreed to invest $171 million in a new medium-lift launch system Orbital Sciences Corp. wants to field in 2010 to deliver satellites to orbit and cargo to the international space station. The U.S. space agency is subsidizing the new launch system under its $500 million Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which is aimed at fostering privately owned alternatives to the space shuttle and other government systems for ferrying crew and cargo to the space station.