Orbital Plans to Develop Cygnus-Based Crew Capsule

摘要

Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. is throwing its hat into NASA's commercial-crew transport ring with plans to develop a crew capsule based on the company's Cygnus cargo module, according to industry sources.rnCygnus and its Taurus 2 medium-class launcher are currently in development with help from $171 million in NASA funding won in February 2008 under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program. NASA in December awarded Orbital a $1.9 billion contract for resupply missions to the international space station.