🚀 go-pugleaf

Paula Cleggett
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.              January 18, 1989

Kari Fluegel
Johnson Space Center, Houston


RELEASE:  89-6

NASA CALLS FOR PROPOSALS REGARDING REUSABLE REENTRY SATELLITE


     NASA officials at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, 
last week released a request for proposal (RFP) for continued 
studies and design of an unmanned reusable reentry satellite 
(RRS) that could significantly expand NASA's capability to 
investigate the weightlessness environment. 

     The RRS, called LifeSat when carrying life science payloads, 
will be placed into Earth orbit by an expendable launch vehicle, 
reserving the National Space Transportation System for activities 
requiring crew presence.

     The RFP calls for the design of an almost completely 
reusable spacecraft that could be processed and readied for 
reflight in 2 months, allowing for several flights each year. 
Designs are expected to be derivatives of the often-flown 
Department of Defense Discovery satellite or the NASA 
Gemini/Apollo vehicles of the 1960s, calling for a vehicle 
roughly 6-feet in diameter and weighing more than 2,000 pounds 
with a useful payload of 500 pounds.

     RRS will be used primarily in the fields of life sciences 
and materials processing and would fly experiments in a variety 
of orbits including those providing high doses of radiation for 
periods up to and perhaps, beyond 60 days.  Upon completion of 
the flight, the RRS would reenter and soft-land at a designated 
ground-site where scientists and engineers would have immediate 
access to the experiments.

     Contracts for the design studies to begin this summer will 
be awarded to two vendors at a cost of $1 million each.  The 
project will be managed by JSC and could be flown as early as 
1993 if future development efforts are approved.

     Five international agencies have expressed interest in 
participating in the RRS and are expected to conduct parallel 
study efforts to the U.S. activities.  Agreements for the 
international coordination currently are being formulated.

     The commercial community also has expressed interest in the 
RRS because of its unique orbits, flight duration, autonomous 
operations and the dedicated and easily scheduled nature of the 
system.