NASA is to address Ares I upper-stage thermal protection system (TPS) development at a meeting this week as the agency rethinks the procurement process for the Orion capsule booster's avionics and introduces a short delay to the upper-stage production contract award.
The original 20 March upper-stage request for information (RFI) gave a production request for proposals (RFP) publication date of early 2007. An RFI update has specified that date as February and reveals that the production contract award is to be made in the third quarter. An industry day presentation in April had suggested the second quarter.
"NASA programmatic reviews have resulted in a slight change to the Constellation Level 2 systems requirements review," says the update. "Each subsystem has adjusted accordingly." The update also changes the name of the RFI's avionics production contract to the "instrument unit contract" and warns of changes to the procurement timetable, saying that "the Ares I instrument unit contract schedule is being reviewed".
The April presentation envisaged that the avionics production schedule would result in an RFP in the fourth quarter of 2007, and a contract would be placed around the beginning of the second quarter of 2008. The avionics schedule has already been revised once. In June it was changed to include production support and delivery of the first flight unit in the contract.
Despite these changes, TPS development is on track with this week's meeting and development work planned to continue until the beginning of 2008. NASA wants more environmentally friendly TPS materials and process technologies for Ares I.
Source: Flight International
