Taking a peek inside Boeing’s new high-tech CST-100 mock up test article. Credit: Mike Killian
Boeing, SpaceX garner NASA contracts
to launch astronauts from American soil
By Mike Killian
In 2010, with the retirement of NASA’s iconic 30-year
space shuttle program, the space agency began the
Commercial Crew Program to stimulate development
of privately built and operated American-made
spacecraft for transporting astronauts to and from
low-Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space
Station (ISS). Since the final shuttle landed in 2011,
America has been forced to buy seats to and from
the orbiting outpost on the Russian Soyuz capsule, at a
cost of over $70 million, per seat. Now, after over four
years of testing, development, and waiting, NASA has
selected Boeing’s CST-100 space capsule and SpaceX’s
Dragon V2 space capsule to replace the agency’s
now-retired space shuttle fleet for flying astronauts
to and from LEO and the ISS no later than 2017.
“Turning over LEO transportation to private industry
will allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious
mission – sending humans to Mars,” said NASA
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Administrator Charlie Bolden. “We don’t know who
is going to get to command the first mission to carry
humans into LEO on a spacecraft built by an American
private company, but we know it will be a seminal
moment in NASA history and a major achievement for
our nation. We now know, however, who will build it.”
The total award value of their Commercial Crew
Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts are worth
up to $6.8 billion, with $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6
billion for SpaceX, and in order to achieve final NASA
certification by 2017 both Boeing and SpaceX must
meet the same rigorous safety standards that were
required for the space shuttle. NASA has stated that
Boeing is the agency’s primary transport vehicle of
choice, with SpaceX’s Dragon V2 awarded as a
backup. There’s the old saying, “money talks,” and
NASA potentially awarding Boeing $1.6 billion more
than SpaceX shows the agency has more confidence
in Boeing’s experience and the CST-100’s design,
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