NASA has awarded a USD 6.8 billion contract to Boeing and Space X to build the next generation spacecraft that will carry US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017, ending America's reliance on Russian vehicles for access to low-Earth orbit.
"Today we are one step closer to launching our astronauts from US soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation's sole reliance on Russia by 2017. Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry will also allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission - sending humans to Mars," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said at the agency's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
"From day one, the Obama Administration made clear that the greatest nation on Earth should not be dependent on other nations to get into space," Bolden said.
While Boeing will use its CST-100 spacecraft, Space X will use the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The Boeing Company has been given the contract for USD 4.2 billion and Space X USD 2.6 billion.
The contracts include at least one crewed flight test per company with at least one NASA astronaut aboard to verify the fully integrated rocket and spacecraft system can launch, manoeuvre in orbit, and dock to the space station, as well as validate all its systems perform as expected.
Once each company's test programme has been completed successfully and its system achieves NASA certification, each contractor will conduct at least two, and as many as six, crewed missions to the space station. These spacecraft also will serve as a lifeboat for astronauts aboard the station, NASA said.
NASA said the companies will own and operate the crew transportation systems and be able to sell human space transportation services to other customers in addition to NASA, thereby reducing the costs for all customers.
In a statement, Boeing said under the Commercial Crew Transportation (CCtCap) phase of the programme, it will build three CST-100s at the company's Commercial Crew Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The spacecraft will undergo a pad-abort test in 2016 and an uncrewed flight in early 2017, leading up to the first crewed flight to the ISS in mid-2017.
Boeing recently completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) and Phase Two Spacecraft Safety Review of its Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft, becoming the only competitor for NASA's Commercial Crew programme to pass a CDR as well as complete all CCtCap milestones on time and on budget.
