NASA prepares to award SLS launch services contract to Boeing-Northrop joint venture

美国宇航局准备将授予波音-诺斯罗普（Boeing-Northrop）合资公司SLS发射服务合同

WASHINGTON — NASA is preparing to award a contract to a Boeing-Northrop Grumman joint venture for Space Launch System missions that could run through the middle of the next decade.

华盛顿——美国宇航局正准备将一份合同授予波音—诺斯罗普·格鲁曼（Boeing-Northrop Grumman）公司的一家合资企业，该公司将执行一项可能持续到下一个十年中期的太空发射系统任务。

The agency published July 26 a pre-solicitation notice for its Exploration Production and Operations Contract (EPOC), which would shift procurement of SLS launches to a services contract. Under the contract, NASA would procure launch services, rather than the vehicles themselves, for missions starting with Artemis 5 in the late 2020s.

该机构于7月26日发布了一份勘探生产和运营合同（EPOC）的预招标通知，该合同将把SLS发射的采购转移至服务合同。根据合同，美国宇航局将采购发射服务，而不是仪器本身，为任务开始的阿耳忒弥斯（Artemis）5在2020年代末。

NASA envisions EPOC as a means of saving money as well as opening the door to other uses of the heavy-lift rocket. The baseline contract would cover missions Artemis 5 through 9, with an option for missions Artemis 10 through 14 and another option for up to 10 non-Artemis launches. If the options are exercised, the contract would run through the Artemis 14 mission that NASA projects flying in 2036.

美国宇航局设想把勘探生产和运营合同当作一种节省资金的手段，以及打开使用其他重型火箭的大门。基线合同将涵盖阿耳忒弥斯 5至9号飞行任务，并有一个阿耳忒弥斯 10至14号飞行任务的选择方案，以及最多10次非阿耳忒弥斯发射的另一个选择方案。如果这些选择权得到实施，该合同将贯穿美国宇航局计划在2036年飞行的阿耳忒弥斯14号任务。

“Through this contract approach, we are working to enable the use of this one-of-a-kind heavy lift capability to other customers,” said Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for space operations, in a statement. “This approach will also allow NASA to streamline SLS production and operations under one contract, creating a more affordable and sustainable exploration framework for decades to come.”

美国宇航局负责太空行动的副局长凯西·吕德斯在一份声明中说：“通过这种合同方式，我们正在努力让其他客户也能够使用这种独一无二的重型起重能力。”“这种方法还将使美国宇航局将SLS的生产和运营简化至一个合同里，创造一个更负担得起的和可持续发展的勘探框架，直到未来几十年。”

NASA expects to award the contract to a new joint venture called Deep Space Transport LLC. That joint venture consists of Boeing, the prime contractor for the SLS core stage and the Exploration Upper Stage that will be used on SLS missions starting with Artemis 4, and Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor for the SLS solid rocket boosters.

美国宇航局希望将合同授予一家名为深空运输有限责任公司（Deep Space Transport LLC）的新合资企业。该合资企业由波音公司和诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司（Northrop Grumman）组成，波音公司是SLS核心级和探索级的主承包商，探索级将用于从阿耳忒弥斯4号开始的SLS任务，诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司是SLS固体火箭助推器的主承包商。

The contract would effectively be sole-sourced to Deep Space Transport. In the pre-solicitation notice, NASA says that it believes it would be infeasible to hand over production of SLS components to other companies because of both proprietary processes the companies use as well as the time required to establish an alternative production line.

这份合同实际上是由深空运输公司独家提供的。在招标前通知中，美国宇航局说，它认为将SLS部件的生产移交给其他公司是不可行的，因为这些公司使用的专有工艺以及建立替代生产线所需的时间。

“To have another company manufacture the Core Stage and Exploration Upper Stage may take as long as 10 years,” NASA states in the documents, with “a duplicative cost to the Government not expected to be recovered through competition.” Producing the five-segment boosters would take another company up to nine years, NASA estimates, and seven years for an alternative manufacturer of the RS-25 engines for the core stage produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

“让另一家公司制造核心级和探索高级可能需要长达10年的时间，”美国宇航局在文件中说，“政府的重复成本预计不会通过竞争收回。”美国宇航局估计，生产五段助推器将需要另一家公司长达9年的时间，而制造RS-25发动机的关键阶段将需要花费另一家制造商Aerojet Rocketdyne 7年的时间。

Neither the NASA statement nor the pre-solicitation notice discussed the value of the EPOC award. In a request for information last October, NASA said it was seeking “a substantial savings of 50% or more off of the current industry baseline per flight cost” for SLS through the new contract, but did not disclose that baseline cost.

美国航天局的声明和招标前通知都没有讨论勘探生产和运营合同合同的价值。在去年10月的一次信息请求中，美国宇航局表示，它正在寻求通过新合同为SLS“在当前行业基线每次飞行成本的基础上大幅节省50%或更多”，但没有透露基线成本。

“I think we’d be really happy at some stage if we could get our launch and processing costs to between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, but we’ve got a little ways to go,” Lueders said in a call with reporters last November about its plans for EPOC.

“我认为，如果我们能将发射和处理成本控制在10亿至15亿美元之间，我们在某个阶段会非常高兴，但我们还有一段路要走，”Lueders去年11月在与记者的电话交谈中谈到勘探生产和运营合同计划时表示。

A report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General last November estimated one SLS costs $2.2 billion, accounting for a little more than half the total cost of $4.1 billion for a single Artemis mission that includes the Orion spacecraft and ground systems. The report was skeptical that NASA could achieve significant near-term cost savings, and recommended NASA “monitor the commercial development of heavy-lift space flight systems and begin discussions of whether it makes financial and strategic sense to consider these options” as alternatives to SLS.

美国宇航局监察长办公室去年11月的一份报告估计，一个SLS的成本为22亿美元，占包括猎户座航天器和地面系统在内的一个阿耳忒弥斯任务41亿美元总成本的一半多一点。该报告对NASA能否在短期内实现显著的成本节约持怀疑态度，并建议NASA“监测重型航天飞行系统的商业发展，并开始讨论考虑这些选择是否具有财务和战略意义”，作为SLS的替代方案。

NASA stated in the pre-solicitation notice that it expects to make the EPOC award to Deep Space Transport by the end of 2023.

NASA在预征集通知中表示，预计将在2023年底前将勘探生产和运营合同授予深空运输公司。