Boeing, SpaceX win Commercial Crew competition

[Crewleader]

September 16, 2014

CAPE CANAVERAL -- The next time astronauts launch to orbit from here, they'll be strapped into a capsule emblazoned with a Boeing or SpaceX logo next to an American flag.

NASA today named those two companies – one from the aerospace establishment, the other a rising "new space" phenomenon – the winners of a competition to launch crews to the International Space Station on private space taxis by 2017.

Worth up to $6.8 billion combined, the contracts include at least one crewed test flight to the station, then between two and six operational flights of four-person crews.

Those missions will end a gap in human spaceflight from U.S. soil that began with the shuttle's last flight in 2011. U.S. crews now rely on Russia for rides to orbit.

"The greatest nation on Earth should not be dependent on any other nation to get into space," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said during a 4 p.m. announcement at Kennedy Space Center. "Today we're one step closer to launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation's sole reliance on Russia by 2017."


http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2014/09/16/source-nasa-to-announce-two-winners-to-fly-astronauts-to-iss/15718351/