NASA has narrowed the list of bidders in a $14 billion industry competition to support the agency’s cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.Andy Pasztor lists Boeing (NYSE: BA), Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), Sierra Nevada and SpaceX as the remaining contenders for the next round of commercial space cargo delivery contracts.
NASA plans to award multiple contracts in early November and begin to transport additional ISS supplies in 2018, the newspaper reports.
AÂ Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT)-led team proposed a cargo delivery system in late 2014 but NASA ruled that submission out of this competition round due to cost concerns, Pasztor reports.
Lockheed sought to help the agency build a habitat for astronauts, robotic technology-based servicing vehicles and a multimission autonomous spacecraft through the program, the report said.
