Rocketplane Kistler Appeals NASA Decision to Terminate COTS Agreement

摘要

Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) is not going down without a fight. Less than 24 hours after being notified that NASA was pulling the plug on a 14-month-old agreement to help finance the company's effort to develop a commercial transportation service to and from the international space station, RpK appealed the decision. NASA announced Oct. 18 it intends to take the $175 million previously committed to RpK under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and put it back out for competition in a matter of days. The agency plans to release a solicitation for a new full and open COTS competition Oct. 22 and give prospective bidders 30 days to submit proposals.