the development of commercially provided ISS crew 
transportation and crew rescue services. 
SEC. 242. COMMERCIAL CREW AND RELATED COMMERCIAL 
SPACE INITIATIVES. 
(a) 
COMMERCIAL
SERVICES
OPPORTUNITIES.— 
NASA shall seek, to the extent practicable, to make use 
of commercially available space services, including com-
mercially available services to transport United States 
Government astronauts to and from the ISS, provided 
that— 
(1) those commercial services have dem-
onstrated the capability to meet NASA-specified as-
cent, transit, entry, and ISS proximity operations 
safety requirements; 
(2) the services provider has completed, and 
NASA has verified, crewed flight demonstrations or 
operational flights that comply with NASA stand-
ards, policies, and procedures; and 
(3) the per-seat cost to the United States is not 
greater than the per-seat cost for the system devel-
oped under section 202. 
(b) HUMAN-RATING.—The Administrator shall estab-
lish requirements, standards, and processes for the human 
rating of space transportation systems that are equivalent 
to NASA safety processes and procedures. 
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(c) TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER.—The Administrator 
shall make available, on a nonexclusive basis, NASA-devel-
oped technologies for transfer to potential United States 
commercial orbital human space transportation compa-
nies. NASA shall determine the appropriate means, 
through cost-reimbursable arrangements or other mecha-
nisms, to transfer the technologies. 
(d) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND FACILITIES.—The 
Administrator shall make available, to the extent prac-
ticable, NASA facilities and equipment to assist in the 
testing and demonstration of commercial crew transpor-
tation systems, including those associated with NASA’s 
safety and mission assurance activities, such as NASA’s 
Independent Verification and Validation facility for soft-
ware verification. The Administrator shall determine the 
appropriate means, through cost-reimbursable arrange-
ments, agreements entered into under section 203(c)(5) 
of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (42 
U.S.C. 2473(c)(5)), or other mechanisms, to provide tech-
nical assistance and access to facilities to the commercial 
space sector. 
(e) NASA INSIGHT AND OVERSIGHT PROCESSES.— 
Any company that seeks to provide commercial crew trans-
portation services under contract to NASA shall enter into 
an arrangement with NASA that allows NASA to obtain 
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ongoing insight into the design methodologies, processes, 
technologies, test data, and production and quality control 
practices employed in the development of the commercial 
crew transportation system throughout the development, 
test, demonstration, and production phases. NASA may 
offer early warning of conditions that could lead NASA 
to withhold certification of the crew transportation sys-
tems for the flight of United States Government personnel 
or to decline to enter into a contract for services. NASA 
may not require the company to make changes to its de-
sign, technologies, or processes during the development, 
test, demonstration, or production phases. 
(f) CONTRACTS FOR COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE ISS 
CREW
TRANSPORTATION
AND
CREW
RESCUE
SERV-
ICES.— 
(1) CERTIFICATION
OF
SAFETY
AND
RELI-
ABILITY.—Before entering into a contract for the 
use of commercially available commercial crew trans-
portation or crew rescue services for United States 
Government astronauts, the Administrator shall cer-
tify that a commercial ISS crew transportation and 
crew rescue service provider with which a contract is 
planned has demonstrated the safety and reliability 
of its systems for crew transportation and crew res-
cue to be equivalent to NASA-promulgated safety 
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and reliability policies, procedures, and standards for 
human spaceflight. Individual certifications made 
under this paragraph shall be provided to the Com-
mittee on Science and Technology of the House of 
Representatives and to the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation of the Senate. 
(2) FLIGHT EXPERIENCE.—The Administrator 
shall not enter into any contract or commit any 
United States Government funds for a commercial 
ISS crew transportation or rescue service to a serv-
ice provider until sufficient successful flight experi-
ence has been accrued by the service provider’s sys-
tem to provide to NASA the safety-related and reli-
ability-related data and information needed to deter-
mine whether to fly its astronauts on that system. 
The Administrator shall require an amount of dem-
onstrated flight experience for a commercial crew 
transportation system that is at least as much as 
NASA requires under Alternative 1 as delineated in 
the NASA Policy Directive NPD 8610.7D, effective 
January 31, 2008, for common launch vehicle con-
figurations before Class A (high cost and high pri-
ority) payloads can be flown on them. 
(3) ADMINISTRATOR’S ACTIONS.—To facilitate 
the ability of commercial crew transportation pro-
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viders to comply with NASA human spaceflight safe-
ty and reliability requirements, the Administrator 
shall— 
(A) develop and communicate the human- 
rating requirements established under sub-
section (b) to commercial space companies; 
(B) establish minimum acceptable safety 
levels; 
(C) provide technical assistance, to the 
maximum extent practicable, to the commercial 
space sector in understanding and applying 
NASA human-rating requirements, standards, 
and processes to commercial crew transpor-
tation and crew rescue systems; 
(D) establish and communicate to the com-
mercial sector the process NASA will apply for 
securing ongoing NASA insight into the design 
methodologies, 
processes, 
technologies, 
test 
data, and production and quality control prac-
tices employed in the development of the com-
mercial crew transportation system throughout 
the development, test, demonstration, and pro-
duction phases; 
(E) establish and communicate to the com-
mercial sector NASA’s process for certifying 
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