| Initiative | Period |
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|
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| Commercial Cargo Development | 2006 - 2011 |
| Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities | 2007 - 2010 |
| Commercial Crew Development (phase 1) | 2010 - 2011 |
| Commercial Resupply Services (cargo) | 2011 - 2015 |
| Commercial Crew Development (phase 2) | 2011 - 2012 |
|
|
|
| NASA's COTS program Private spaceflight companies |
|
Space Act Agreement is a type of legal agreement specified in the National Aeronautics and Space Act that established NASA. Agreements of this type have been reached under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) programs are examples of Space Act agreements. They are not subject to normal Federal Acquisition Regulations.
Besides these two initiatives NASA has concluded five other agreements in the Commercial Space Transportation Capabilities (CSTC).
Five agreements were signed between January 2007 and June 2007:[1]
All three of the Space Act Agreement initiatives, COTS, CSTC and CCDev are for development, engineering and testing of design concepts, but CSTC is different from the other two initiatives in no providing any funding. CSTC agreements are only instruments committing NASA to increase cooperation and to support the private sector companies with information and other facilities, but this commitment is without financial implications and both sides (NASA and the private companies) should ensure by themselves the required funds for their respective parts of the activities.