TUCSON, AZ (April 27, 2015) – Paragon was recently awarded a contract by The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] to provide services to support their Crew Space Transportation System (CCTS) and Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft. Specifically, Paragon will provide the CST-100 Humidity Control Subassembly (HCS) for cabin atmospheric humidity control.
“We are excited to see this commitment from NASA which will allow commercial companies like Boeing to take the lead on low-Earth orbit transportation,” said Grant Anderson, Paragon President and CEO. “Private human space transportation services provide not only a reliable and safe vehicle but will reduce overall costs to all customers looking to travel into low-Earth orbit. The positive impact on small businesses like Paragon, as well as the opportunity for new markets, is also encouraging”.
Paragon’s HCS is based on patent-pending humidity control technology developed under a NASA Commercial Crew Development 1 (CCDev1) Space Act Agreement designed to stimulate the private sector in the development of safe, reliable and cost-effective space transportation. The humidity control system is one of seven systems that comprise Paragon’s Commercial Crew Transport-Air Revitalization System (CCT-ARS) which was developed through the flight Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in 2010 for commercial crew transport applications. Paragon’s resulting CST-100 HCS meets Boeing needs as a robust, simple and low mass humidity control solution for a variety of applications. Boeing’s CST-100 is being developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which aims to resume U.S.-based flights to space by 2017. The CST-100 will transport up to seven passengers or a mix of crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) and other low-Earth orbit destinations.
Under the Commercial Crew Transportation (CCtCap) phase of the program, Boeing will build three CST-100s at the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft will undergo a pad-abort test, an uncrewed flight test and the first crewed flight to the ISS in 2017.
Earlier this year, Boeing completed the first two milestones in the CCtCap phase, the Certification Baseline Review (CBR) and Ground System Critical Design Review (CDR). The completion of the Certification Baseline Review allows construction on system hardware, including the spacecraft and United Launch Alliance (ULA) launch vehicle adaptor, to begin. It also keeps the effort on track for achieving human-rated certification of the vehicle and ULA Atlas V rocket. The Ground System CDR evaluates all the ground operations and systems, mission operation systems, facilities, training systems, including mock-ups and trainers, and the control center.
For more information on the CST-100, please visit: www.boeing.com/cst100