ibility of termination.
NASA’s decision to allow companies to fly their vehicles to the space station on demonstration flights and be captured by its robotic arm presented an “extremely difficult challenge,” Lindenmoyer said.
“A lot of people in NASA didn’t want these companies coming anywhere near the $100 billion space station with its international astronauts,” Lindenmoyer said.
The success of the cargo program bodes well for the commercial crew program, which Lindenmoyer launched but then transitioned to another NASA center. According to Wilde, the U.S. would prefer not to pay Russia $70 million to fly each American astronaut to the space station.
“I want American dollars to go to American companies for space transport,” Wilde said. “We’re one big contract away from sealing the deal to allow us to stop counting on the Russians to get into space,” he added. “Alan’s program paves the way for that.”
Bolden agreed. “Alan made a huge difference in enhancing the economic well-being of the nation,” he said.